Tata Consultancy Services and the Singapore Management University
(SMU) announced the establishment of the TCS-SMU iCity Lab to be located at
SMU.
The collaboration agreement signed states the two
organizations are partnering to create a new research facility to develop
industry standards and IT frameworks for the emerging intelligent city
( iCity”) model of urban development.
TCS
will initially directly invest S$6 million in the new TCS-SMU iCity Lab over
the next three years. The investment provides scholarship funds for SMU
post-graduate students in Information Systems Technology & Management, and
research funds for SMU faculty.
In addition to the direct investment in the iCity Lab at
SMU, TCS is supporting the initiative under the TCS Co-Innovation Network (TCS
COIN) initiative, with collaboration from its global network of Innovation
Labs. The iCity Lab is be located within SMU’s School of Information Systems
(SIS), and will draw on faculty from SIS as well as from the other parts of
SMU.
TCS’ investment in this joint initiative with SMU
strengthens our commitment to Singapore, which we see as a hub of innovation in
in Asia,” said Girija Pande, chairman, TCS Asia Pacific.
Tomorrow’s cities will be specifically designed and built
with a sophisticated IT backbone to enable integrated urban management,
improved quality of life for citizens, and inclusive economic, social and
sustainable growth. The TCS-SMU iCity lab is particularly relevant for fast
growing economies like China, India and others in the region. Globally over
US$100 billion is expected to be invested in the intelligent city segment over
the next 10 years.
This industry-university partnership is a first of its
kind in Asia-Pacific for integrating cloud technology with the relevant
business know-how to create urban management IT solutions,” said Professor
Steven Miller, Dean, School of Information Systems, SMU.
Through TCS-SMU iCity Lab, we will be partnering with
surrounding urban centres across the region to change and re-imagine the way
the IT hardware and software infrastructure of cities is going to be designed,
built, integrated and managed in the future,” Miller added.
The partnership combines TCS’ innovation with SMU‘s focus on
research and education and for the world of business and management across both
the public and private sectors. Both TCS and SMU are known for their ability to
integrate IT with business in ways that creates innovative IT solutions that
meet public and private sector management needs.
The iCity Lab will be a digitally interactive
user-experience center where city managers and planners from the urban areas of
surrounding countries can come to visualize and interactively explore scenarios
for transitioning to the new generation of cloud-based information service
delivery. The lab will also serve government and commercial organizations
via the rapid development and prototyping of intelligent city solutions in the
context of real-world scenarios.
The iCity Lab will leverage TCS’ existing suite of urban
IT applications, as well as its large global organization and partner
ecosystem. The lab will also carry out R&D and solution development
in the areas of cloud platforms and software solutions, mobile applications,
business analytics combined with consumer, citizen and social analytics, the
Internet-of-Things, and also in the areas of business models for developing,
scaling and operating cloud-based iCity solution platforms.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
