14 DAY TRIAL // Intel recently announced its decision to invest $100 million into U.S. university research, over the next 5 years, in order to develop new computing and communication technologies, the company planning to open Intel Science and Technology Centers across multiple universities throughout the year.
As an initial step, Standford is going to be the first universities to get such a center, Intel stating this will focus on improving visual computing experience for consumers and professional users alike.
The recently introduced Sandy Bridge architecture will be used as an R&D platform for researchers to develop innovations which improve the quality and the way images are captured or created, manipulated or interpreted and ultimately displayed to the viewer.
“Intel Labs has long been a significant investor in university research and this program is the next step in that critical investment,” said Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer.
“The pace of technology change is getting faster. With today’s announcement we are ensuring that Intel Labs’ academic research support is adaptable and flexible.
“Our new approach should allow us to quickly and dynamically invest in the most promising academic work,” concluded the company's rep.
Unlike the company's previous approach that relied on running open collaboration centers near research universities, the new centers are Intel-funded and jointly led by Intel together with the education institutions.
This means that operating, maintaining and staffing expenses are reduced to a minimum, more money getting into the hands of researchers.
In addition, Intel will be able to tune its research agenda across all the centers over time.
Apart from Standford, such centers are scheduled to be opened at Berkeley, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, The University of Washington, UC Irvine and US Davis, Intel hoping to launch half a dozen ISTCs by the end of 2012.