Nokia Research Center opens ’lablet’ on Helsinki University of Technology campus and announces strategic research collaboration

Announcement paves the way for Nokia to cooperate with the new Innovation University

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced the expansion of its research activities with the opening of a research lablet on the Otaniemi campus of Helsinki University of Technology. At the same time Nokia Research Center and Helsinki University of Technology announced a joint strategic research program in the area of mobile communications technologies.

Nokia Research Lablet Otaniemi will work in an open mode with various laboratories of Helsinki University of Technology. This means establishing joint research programs and daily interaction between Nokia and university researchers who will share the same facilities. Nokia is looking forward to future collaboration with the new Innovation University - consisting of Helsinki School of Economics (HSE), University of Art and Design Helsinki (TAIK) and Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) - after their merger in August 2009. Nokia hopes the Innovation University will be a leading innovation hot spot in mobile technologies and systems.

Nokia Research Center has chosen to work with Helsinki University of Technology because of its expertise in wireless technologies. This move builds on more than 10 years of experience working together.

The joint research agenda will include: new communication technologies; innovative uses for radio and Internet connections; user interaction and applications of nanotechnology. This may lead to
- New digital services fusing the digital world of the Internet and the physical world around us. Examples of such technologies are indoor positioning and electromagnetic imaging.
- Sophisticated data analysis and mining promise better customized services
- New identity and security solutions enabling online transactions.

The Otaniemi campus will also serve as a test-bed for new applications and services with an enthusiastic group of innovative users.

“Finnish universities have produced the world’s most skilled and innovative engineers in the field of wireless communications. Nokia Research Center has always benefited from that and is now drawing even closer with this opening. With the Innovation University opening next year the challenge for us all is to be yet more innovative and imaginative in order to be successful in the next phase of the digital economy,” said Dr. Bob Iannucci, Nokia Chief Technology Officer and Head of Nokia Research Center.

Dr. Matti Pursula, Rector, Helsinki University of Technology, commented: “The Nokia research lablet deepens the traditionally strong cooperation and close relationships between Nokia and Helsinki University of Technology. We see the lablet in Otaniemi as an indication of the high quality and relevance of our research. The opening of the lablet on our campus greatly supports our own efforts in the research of the new technologies and applications of the new digital world. We, together with our partners in the Innovation University, want to make the new lablet as a globally known place for innovative research and an inspiring milieu for the best scientists to study and to do research.”

“We are experiencing a major industry transition for mobile technologies and systems. With the transition, we do not necessarily know the right questions to be solved through research. The best recipe, in my mind, is to set the best people with diverse backgrounds together in enriching interaction and let them co-create the future,” commented Dr. Petteri Alinikula, Vice President and Head of NRC Core Technology Research.

Nokia Research Center collaborates with world-class universities and research institutes around the world, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University in the US and University of Cambridge, UK. Last week Nokia Research Center announced a joint research program with two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich (EPFL and ETH Zurich).