Cisco and NUS launch S$54 million Corporate Laboratory to boost innovation and research and accelerate Singapore’s digital economy

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 5
November 2021 – Global technology leader Cisco and National
University of Singapore (NUS) today launched a Corporate Laboratory to boost
innovation and research in key technology areas. Established with an investment
of S$54 million over five years, the Cisco-NUS Accelerated Digital Economy Corporate
Laboratory is
supported by National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF Singapore).

Launch of the Cisco-NUS Accelerated Digital Economy
Corporate Laboratory on 5 November 2021

Front Row (left to right):

Mr Andy Lee, Managing Director, Singapore and Brunei, Cisco

Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Trade and Industry

Professor Tan Eng Chye, NUS President

Back Row (left to right):

Mr Naveen Menon, President, ASEAN, Cisco

Mr Irving Tan, Chairman, Asia Pacific, Japan and China, Cisco

Professor Ho Teck Hua, NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost

Professor Chen Tsuhan, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology)

Photo Credit: Cisco-NUS Corporate Laboratory

Minister
for Trade and Industry Mr Gan Kim Yong graced the launch ceremony, which was
held at NUS earlier today, as the Guest-of-Honour.

Based in the NUS Kent
Ridge campus, the Corporate Lab will bring together talent from NUS and Cisco
to focus on five strategic research areas, with the aim to boost Singapore’s
knowledge-based innovation-driven digital economy. The focus areas are:

• Artificial
  Intelligence (AI):
  Exploring usage of technologies like machine learning to transform and scale
  customer service operations of large businesses
• Healthcare: Developing
  an enabling network and intelligent infrastructure for healthcare in hospitals
  and at home
• Cybersecurity: Strengthening
  Critical Information Infrastructure through research into advanced,
  network-centric cyber threat detection
• Urban
  Infrastructure:
  Developing architectures and solutions to support design and operation of urban
  infrastructure and smart industries
• Future
  Workforce and Productivity: Driving productivity by understanding who needs to
  learn, how they learn, and how to generate skills and competencies needed for a
  future-ready workforce

Please refer to the Annexe for more information on the research projects that
the Corporate Lab will undertake.

These technologies are
key not just in relation to successful digital transformation of businesses but
also to efforts of governments across the world as they look to digital
adoption to improve citizen services. This is especially critical right now as
companies and countries prepare for a post-pandemic future where digital-first
interactions, a hybrid workforce, and smart urban infrastructure are likely to
become ubiquitous. The success of all these trends will be underpinned by
cybersecurity and the ability of businesses and governments to keep critical
information infrastructure safe from malicious actors.

Naveen Menon, President
for ASEAN at Cisco, said, “Over the past 18 months, we have seen the role
technology has played in keeping the world running as we grappled with the
pandemic. As we prepare for a post-pandemic future, one thing is clear – technology
will be central to every aspect of businesses and governments, and their
interaction with consumers and citizens. In this digital-first era, building
local innovation capabilities that deliver globally relevant solutions will be
critical to the success of countries. At Cisco, we are delighted to have the
opportunity to play our part in Singapore’s growth through this collaboration
with NUS.”    

Singapore is
among the global leaders in adoption of technology through its Smart Nation
initiative, which focuses on Digital Economy, Digital Government, and Digital
Society. These are respectively aimed at: digitalising industries
to increase business efficacy and create new jobs and opportunities; using
data, connectivity and computing decisively to transform the way citizens and
businesses are served, and the way public officers are enabled to contribute
fully to their work; and digital inclusion to ensure all Singaporeans have
access to technology and are equipped with the skills to use it safely and
confidently.

Professor Tan Eng Chye,
President of NUS, said, “Digital
transformation is an inevitable direction for businesses and societies, and
this has been accelerated by the COVID-19
situation. We need to be nimble and innovative to reap the benefits of
digitialisation. Data sciences, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity,
optimisation and analytics are NUS’ key research strengths. We are therefore very
excited to partner Cisco to jointly create scalable systems solutions and
capabilities to capitalise on data and artificial intelligence technology to
improve our living environment, create economic opportunities, and build a more
connected and resilient society.”

Professor Low Teck Seng,
Chief Executive Officer of NRF, said, “The Cisco-NUS Corporate Lab will develop
critical digital capabilities across multiple domains including healthcare,
cybersecurity, urban infrastructure, which are strategic and important areas of
research for Singapore to ensure Singapore continues to maintain our competitiveness
as a global Smart Nation. This partnership will help foster stronger
industry-research ties, and pave the way for more industry-research
collaborations within our science and technology ecosystem.”

Liz Centoni, Executive
Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, and GM, Applications at Cisco, added,
“As we move into the digital-first future, businesses have a unique opportunity
to leverage the advancements in technology to solve key issues, opening up new
revenue and growth opportunities. At Cisco, we firmly believe that innovation
can happen anywhere. That is why we are committed to working with partners
worldwide to develop and commercialise next-generation technologies and
solutions so they can benefit users everywhere. We are delighted to have the
opportunity to work with NUS on this initiative in Singapore.”

Developing technology enablers for a smarter Singapore

The Corporate Lab is led by Mr Jeremy Lim, Manager of the Cisco Singapore
Co-Innovation Center, and Associate Professor Biplab Sikdar who is a faculty
member of the NUS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as
Co-Directors.

The Corporate Lab will employ and train more than 100
researchers, analysts, engineers and students to work on 15 research projects. It
will also provide scholarships for doctoral students who will work on projects
associated with the Corporate Lab.

In addition, the Corporate Lab aims to deliver 17
new technology solutions, 12 improved products and services in areas such as
AI, healthcare, supply chain, urban infrastructure and cybersecurity, and also benefit/partner
at least 100 Singapore-based companies to use and refine the developed
solutions.