ICT company TRLabs has signed a collaborative research and development (R&D) agreement with the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI).
TRLabs president and CEO Roger Pederson said the exchange of ideas and people will boost next-generation information and communications technology (ICT) sector growth.
“We’re seeing an economic transition that extends core network building to new frontiers such as the home, and in rapidly expanding directions such as applications that help us better use networks,” said Pederson.
“National and global partnerships, exemplified by KETI, provide new perspectives and research challenges that push the envelope of innovation.”
KETI is a government-funded information technology research institute. Current special focus is on nanotechnology, binary CDMA technology, home networking and post-PC. KETI operates its own business incubator centre, which includes 30 spinoff companies.
KETI president Choon Ho Kim sees the collaboration drawing on TRLabs’ core competencies in skills training for people and technology innovation, and on KETI’s state-of-the-art information technology, skills and commercialization know-how.
R&D areas of mutual interest include optical and wireless communications and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Personnel exchanges, joint seminars and R&D projects, and business incubation activities are all anticipated in the collaboration.
Victor Doerksen, minister of Alberta Innovation and Science, said the province expects the private sector to also benefit from this partnership as both parties are envisioning a business communication network to connect Albertan and Korean businesses.
TRLabs (www.trlabs.ca) is an ICT research consortium with labs in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg, and 54 partner members in industry, government and academia.
Its research activities focus on six strategic areas: data networking, network access, network systems, new media, photonics and wireless communications.
