Huawei in pact with Imperial College London to open data science innovation lab

Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) company Huawei and Imperial College London today said they will collaborate and jointly-invest on a data science lab.

The Imperial College - Huawei Data Science Innovation Laboratory will bring experts from across Imperial's faculties and Huawei researchers to harness data science research and develop new applications in fields such as smart cities, energy and healthcare.

The data science lab is the first major corporate partnership within Imperial's new Data Science Institute, which will cultivate multi-disciplinary collaborations between the College's academic experts and research partners to develop new big data technologies.

Huawei will invest in equipment including next-generation cloud computing servers, a research and innovation fund, and operational costs for the new lab.

The announcement of the lab follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Huawei and Imperial in July 2013, under which both agreed to look at collaboration opportunities.

The Imperial collaboration is part of Huawei's global investment in innovation and research and development. Every year Huawei invests over 10 per cent of its global revenue into R&D, which in 2013 equated to $5.4 billion.

William Xu, CEO  of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said, "Investing in innovation is central to Huawei's business strategy and this exciting collaboration will help us stay at the cutting edge of data science developments. Imperial College is a global institution with unrivalled knowledge in this field. By bringing its experts together with our engineers we believe we can create new products and services that will harness the huge potential of big data. This collaboration with Imperial also bolsters the wider partnership programme we have with British universities, which includes working with other institutions around the UK on the 5G technologies that will revolutionise how we communicate in the future."

Sir Keith O'Nions, President of Imperial College London, said, "Imperial and Huawei share a commitment to developing the next generation of big data technologies for the benefit of our society and economy. Huawei's investment of knowledge and funding in this lab will empower some of the world's leading experts to accelerate the development of next-generation big data technologies."