Sun, S'pore's NTU Ink Research Pact
By Winston Chai, CNETAsia


Sun Microsystems and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have signed a S$10 million (US$5.7 million) agreement for joint research and development in five emerging technology fields.

To be conducted at the university's center for supercomputing and visualization, the three-year collaboration will see the two organizations team in areas like grid computing, mechanical computer-aided engineering and design, high performance computing, nanotechnology and life sciences.

"Sun is contributing S$2 million (US$1.1 million) in cash and S$3 million (US$1.7 million) in products and technologies," said Cham Tao Soon, president of NTU.

NTU, on the other hand, will provide S$5 million (US$2.8 million) in infrastructure and expertise, said Naoyuki Nakanishi, Sun’s Asia-Pacific director for education and research.

In a related announcement, Sun, with support from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), unveiled plans to open its flagship regional research headquarters in NTU.

Dubbed the Asia-Pacific Science and Technology Center, the new facility will focus primarily on growing expertise in grid computing and high performance computing, Sun said in a statement.

“The center will initially be staffed by a nine-member team consisting of three research scientists and six engineers,” said Simon See, Sun’s director for high performance computing.

“The EDB will co-fund the salary of these researchers their projects,” he added. Without revealing specific timelines, he added Sun also plans to launch this initiative in other parts of Asia including Tokyo, Beijing, Korea, Australia and India.

[Source: CNETAsia News, 20 Dec 02, Friday]