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Initiative will continue to fuel Irish knowledge-economy;
Aims to create 70 new high-tech jobs
Dublin, Ireland, February 3, 2010 - Tánaiste and Minister for
Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan T.D., and Dr. Jeong Kim,
President of Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent(Euronext Paris and
NYSE: ALU), today announced the expansion of Bell Labs in Ireland as part of a
visit to the Bell Labs Research Center in Blanchardstown, Dublin. The program
is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland (Industrial
Development Agency) and aims to enable the creation of more than 70 new
high-caliber technology positions over the next five years.
Since its establishment in 2005, Bell Labs in Ireland has collaborated
closely with both academic and business communities through an Open Innovation
program in strategic areas such as telecommunications, supply chain and the
environment. The expansion will generate a greater number of opportunities for
Irish academia and industry to benefit from Bell Labs Ireland’s unique
facilities and technology insight and from exposure to Bell Labs’ expanding
global network - a key ingredient for technology breakthroughs in the
21st century.
The extension of this relationship and the increase in the number of
technology experts will also enable Bell Labs in Ireland to support Bell Labs’
contribution to the recently announced Green Touch Initiative – an open
consortium of academic and commercial research institutions from around the
world who are creating the technologies needed to reinvent communications
networks and make them 1000 times more energy efficient than they are
today.
Making the announcement, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and
Employment, Mary Coughlan T.D., said “Bell Labs plays a hugely significant part
in the Irish research eco-system. Its uniquely open approach to innovation and
the sharing of ideas will advance technological development and accelerate
growth amongst Irish companies, bolstering our long-term economic
expansion.”
“We are looking forward to expanding our research activities in Ireland and
generating innovative technologies by taking advantage of the close
relationships we have developed with the business and academic community,” said
Jeong Kim, president of Bell Labs. “Through these efforts we believe Bell Labs
in Ireland will be able to contribute to the local knowledge economy and have a
beneficial impact on the lives of people around the world”
Commenting on the announcement, Barry O’Leary CEO IDA Ireland said: “Bell
Labs is one of Ireland's first big collaborative investments and has been a
tremendous success. The reputation of Bell Labs reflects Ireland’s credibility
as the leading location to enable multi-party and multi-disciplinary
investments. Ireland has the talent, enthusiasm and innovative capacity that
encourages interconnectivity between all parties involved, which reflects the
Irish Government’s Smart Economy Strategy.”
Through its open innovation model, Bell Labs Ireland is a key contributor to
successful projects such as the Science Foundation Ireland-supported CSET the
Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research (CTVR), a collaborative
research centre involving seven Irish universities that has yielded a pool of
highly skilled researchers and scientists who are poised to make significant
contributions to the Irish knowledge economy.
In the five years of its existence Bell Labs Ireland has become a source of
innovations that have had a direct and positive impact on the
telecommunications industry and on society:
- Bell Labs Ireland’s focus on energy management has yielded a novel 3D heat
sink design that reduces the energy required to cool communications systems by
more than 25%, a significant impact given that up to 50% of a
telecommunications equipment cabinet’s total power consumption is expended on
cooling.
- Sam Samuel, executive director of Bell Labs Ireland was one of the pioneers
of the femtocell, a key component for improving communications network
coverage. Femtocells have already been deployed in Vodafone’s UK networks and
Bell Labs in Ireland is continuing its exploration of the femtocell’s
potential.
- The RF hardware research team created new low-cost, low-weight,
high-efficiency hardware technology for active antenna arrays, putting power
amplifiers and receivers behind each antenna element to increase capacity and
reduce power consumption in cellular base stations.
- The supply chain analytics research team has developed novel mathematical
models to support the redesign of Alcatel-Lucent’s supply chain. The advanced
models and tools, as well as analytical insights provided by the team have
resulted in significant cost savings to the company.
- Bell Labs Ireland was instrumental in defining the new IEEE 1687 (IJTAG)
standard which simplifies the automatic on-site testing of telecom equipment
thereby improving the reliability of systems.
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