Intel, ISTC, Carnegie Mellon, Research Intel tips more university research centers

SAN FRANCISCO—Intel Corp. Wednesday (Aug. 3) announced that it would open two more Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTC), both to be headquartered at Carnie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) said the two newest ISTCs would focus on cloud computing research and embedded computing, respectively. Intel said the company would invest $30 million in the new ISTCs.

Intel's ISTCs—part of a commitment by the world's biggest chip maker to pump $100 million into U.S. university research over the next five years—aim to increase university research and accelerate innovation in a handful of key areas. The company previously announced an ISTC focused on secure computing at the University of California- Berkeley and another focused on visual computing at Stanford University.

"These new ISTCs are expected to open amazing possibilities," said Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, in a statement. "Imagine, for example, future cars equipped with embedded sensors and microprocessors to constantly collect and analyze traffic and weather data. That information could be shared and analyzed in the cloud so that drivers could be provided with suggestions for quicker and safer routes."

The cloud computing ISTC broadens combines top researchers from Intel, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Institute of Technology, UC-Berkeley, Princeton University, the company said. The researchers will explore technology that will have has important future implications for the cloud, including built-in application optimization, more efficient and effective support of big data analytics on massive amounts of online data, and making the cloud more distributed and localized by extending cloud capabilities to the network edge and even to client devices, Intel said.

The ISTC for embedded computing taps into the expertise of leading researchers from Intel, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, Georgia Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley, Intel said. The aim of the ISTC is to form a new collaborative community to drive research to transform experiences in the home, car and retail environment of the future, Intel said.

Also Wednesday, Intel said it expanded the ISTC program by openly inviting researchers from across the U.S. academic community to submit information to be considered in the process to define additional ISTCs.

Intel, ISTC, Carnegie Mellon, Research Intel tips more university research centers