AMD Opens Fusion Center of Innovation at the University of Illinois

Since Advanced Micro Devices wants its Fusion technology to be adopted by as many people as possible, it figured it was time to take a more active role in the teaching and promoting of heterogeneous computing.

What the Sunnyvale, California-based company did was work with the University of Illinois for the creation of an AMD Fusion Center of Innovation.

That means that there is now a place where new commercial enterprises can go to study and research the Fusion architecture, as well as receive funding and mentoring.

“The AMD Fusion Center of Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides the perfect environment of academia and software development,” says Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, AMD Fusion Experience Program.

“We believe heterogeneous computing will be the enabler for innovative user interfaces and immersive computing experiences, which will ultimately be driven by aspiring and audacious students. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will serve as a model for future AMD Fusion Centers of Innovation around the world.”

The first course offered at the AMD Fusion Center of Innovation will have expert speakers covering the specifics of AMD heterogeneous computing technology.

They will also teach start-up creation, commercialization and the basics of entrepreneurship.

The University's College of Engineering, Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC) is where the lectures will be held.

The name of the course is "ENG/TE 360/460: Lectures in Engineering Entrepreneurship AMD Section."

“Through their involvement with the Technology Entrepreneur Center, companies like AMD are helping to further develop the Illinois entrepreneurship ecosystem here in the Midwest,” says Andrew Singer, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and director, Technology Entrepreneur Center, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“Offering the latest innovative computing hardware and software technologies and bringing them into the classroom, where students can apply their ideas and form new ventures will be a great advantage for the generation of new innovative ideas that can be commercialized through the AMD Fusion Center of Innovation.”