![Acer Founder and Honorary Chairman Stan Shih discussing future collaborations with AIM’s data science team during a visit to ACCeSs@AIM.](http://aim.edu/sites/default/files/inline-images/IMG_0268.jpg)
Stan Shih, Founder and Honorary Chairman of Acer, paid a visit to the Asian Institute of Management on 6 February 2018 to see the progress of construction at the Analytics, Computing, and Complex Systems (ACCeSs@AIM) laboratory.
ACCeSs@AIM will house a supercomputer donated by Acer, the fastest in the Philippines with computing speeds of up to 500 teraflops. ACCeSs@AIM will officially open on 8 March 2018 and is expected to be fully operational by the end of April.
Shih was accompanied by Jason Chen, Acer Chairman & CEO, and Manuel Wong, General Manager of Acer Philippines. Before they toured the lab, they met up with the ACCeSs@AIM team led by Professor Christopher Monterola, Executive Managing Director of the lab. Monterola also heads the School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (SITE).
![The Acer team with the ACCeSs@AIM team](http://aim.edu/sites/default/files/inline-images/IMG_0285.jpg)
During their meeting, they discussed the intake status of the first Master of Science in Data Science class. With a target class size originally set at 40 students, MSDS is currently overbooked with 48 accepted applicants and 31 waitlisted candidates.
MSDS candidates come from the country’s top universities and represent a wide range of fields, including computer science, mathematics, statistics, physics, and molecular biology.
Shih was later interviewed by ANC’s Cathy Yang on 8 February 2018. During the interview, they discussed the potential of the Philippines as a player in the development of data science and artificial intelligence technologies, as well as Acer’s supercomputer donation to ACCeSs@AIM.
![Stan Shih, Acer Founder and Honorary Chairman, with Cathy Yang host of ANC’s The Boss](http://aim.edu/sites/default/files/inline-images/20180208_113743.jpg)