Nokia Opens Research Center in Silicon Valley

Nokia has announced the opening of a new research facility in Silicon Valley, with the purpose of developing next generation mobile technologies.

Nokia Research Center Palo Alto will initially focus on four main areas:

- Context-aware content and communities, which could provide technology advancements in the areas of search, advertising and recommendation engines;
- Wireless grids that enable a large number of diverse devices to work together;
- Advanced user interfaces and visual media, for Nokia multimedia computers;
- Innovation radio and sensor networks, offering novel applications of emerging short-range radio technologies.

In the first of a series of planned collaborations, Nokia signed a three-year agreement with Stanford University to develop joint research projects on collaborative mobile computing and applications. Researchers from Nokia and Stanford will work together using the Stanford campus community as an experimental testing ground for new technologies and services developed by Nokia Research Center.

Initially, Nokia Research Center Palo Alto will employ around 35 researchers and plans to expand to 100 researchers as new projects are established. Projects will be managed under the direction of the Head of Nokia Research Center Palo Alto, Dr. John P. Shen.

Currently, Nokia has major research facilities located in two of the leading U.S. educational and technology markets - Silicon Valley and Cambridge. Nokia Research Center Cambridge is a joint effort with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was opened in April 2006.