Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma (file photo)

HANGZHOU, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Alibaba Group announced Wednesday it will set up a new research institute and invest over 100 billion yuan (about 15 billion U.S. dollars) over the next three years in advanced technology development.

The DAMO Academy aims to attract world-class talent in such areas as quantum computing, machine learning, basic algorithms and network security. DAMO stands for "discovery, adventure, momentum and outlook."

It has built partnerships with more than 200 research institutes and universities and started establishing branches in Asia, America and Europe.

Michael I. Jordan, a leading scientist in artificial intelligence and professor at University of California, Berkeley as well as Jeannette M. Wing, director of the Data Sciences Institute at Columbia University, are among the members of the DAMO academic advisory committee announced at the opening session of "The Computing Conference 2017" held in Hangzhou, where Alibaba Group is headquartered.

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said he hopes Alibaba Group, which has 25,000 engineers and scientists, can make achievements in future-oriented cutting-edge technology through DAMO.