Huawei and Imperial College announce new collaboration
London, UK, 19 May, 2020 Huawei has announced a new five-year collaboration with Imperial College London, aimed at growing the UK’s data science and innovation ecosystem.
The agreement was unveiled at the 4th annual Times Higher Education Academic Salon, supported by Huawei, which this year is being held as a webinar. The new agreement, officially announced today by Huawei’s Vice-President Victor Zhang, builds on almost a decade of collaboration between Huawei and Imperial College.
This long-term partnership will see Huawei become the Lead Sponsor of Imperial’s Venture Catalyst Competition (VCC) to support student entrepreneurialism and further support the build out of the UK’s innovation ecosystem, and lead technology sponsor of the annual public engagement event, the Great Exhibition Road Festival, in South Kensington.
Huawei will also becoming a Founding Partner of the Leonardo Centre - a new initiative at Imperial College Business School that explores and experiments with new ways of doing business in order to regenerate economies, communities and natural environments around the world.
As part of the partnership, Huawei will provide 5G indoor wireless network and AI Cloud platform, at one of Imperial’s campuses. This facility will support the research work of Imperial’s Data Science Institute (DSI); the Leonardo Centre; the College’s Enterprise Lab, and the wider SME community that Imperial collaborates with.
Professor Ian Walmsley, Provost of Imperial College, said:
“We work to be at the cutting edge of discoveries and technologies for societal benefit. Our partnership with Huawei has already yielded considerable benefits, and we look forward to expanding this collaboration further.
“Huawei’s expertise in wireless technology will help our researchers, students and partner enterprises to lead the next generation of digital innovations.”
Professor Francisco Veloso, Dean of Imperial College Business School, said: “This partnership with Huawei will help enhance our mission to transform society through world-class research that addresses the key challenges facing businesses today. In today’s uncertain business landscape, there’s a much greater need than ever before for business leaders to experiment with and scale innovative enterprises that have a long-lasting societal impact. Imperial College Business School is conducting groundbreaking research on sustainable business and we look forward to strengthening our position on this topic through this collaboration.”
Victor Zhang, Huawei’s Vice-President and head of the London office, said:
“We are pleased to be playing our role in helping to create an environment where research can explore the boundaries of 5G and AI technologies and rethink what’s possible in the 5G and AI world. We are delighted to provide our world-leading technologies and experiences to an academic partner to support innovation and the creation of ecosystem. It is important for industry and academia to work together for growing the economic and social value as a whole.
Academic Salon
The theme of this year’s Salon, the 4th annual Times Higher Education Academic Salon, supported by Huawei, is “where next for UK research?” The salon has over 400 people registered to join online, with topics for discussion to include:
- Research - How the UK can preserve its robust research and bolster strong, longstanding, knowledge-based partnerships?
- 5G/AI - How can academia and industry best collaborate to foster 5G / AI to create future economic prosperity?
- Digital Health – How can innovation networks ensure better health outcomes in a post-Covid19 world?
- Innovation ecosystems - How can the research and industry landscape be rebalanced so that new innovation ecosystems beyond the Golden Triangle can be encouraged to thrive.
To register to join the live stream please visit here: https://tes.shocklogic.com/events/salonuk/
#UKAcademicSalon