The SMU-TCS iCity Lab today announced that Singapore Management University (SMU) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have extended their partnership for another three years until 2020 to focus on new initiatives in research and development. The ongoing partnership, launched in 2011 and renewed for a second time, will enhance and broaden multi-disciplinary academic research efforts in digital technology to create innovative, technology-enabled solutions to emerging urban challenges.
TCS will invest a total of $1.5 million over the next three years in developing intelligent infrastructure, software and applications. SMU will leverage on its capabilities to generate leading-edge research and strategic linkages with business, government and the wider community to enable the most relevant and contextual ecosystem to deploy the technology solutions.
“At SMU-TCS iCity Lab, our endeavor is to dig deep into our research and development resources to help produce broad-based, creative and collaborative solutions to problems that Singapore faces in its ascent to be a Smart Nation. In TCS, we have found a technology partner with the right tools and expertise to supplement our research capabilities in a way that gives flight to new ideas in healthcare and smart living—from prototype to deployment—not just in Singapore but beyond its shores,” said Professor Steven Miller, Vice-Provost of Research and Professor of Information Systems at Singapore Management University.
The extension of the partnership in SMU-TCS iCity Lab comes on the heels of a very successful pilot project in elderly-care that set a new paradigm in personalized, sustainable and tech-enabled care for senior citizens in Singapore. The pilot project named SHINESeniors, under a Singapore Government grant, was launched in 2014 to test run technologies for ageing-in-place in 100 elderly homes. It proved to be a highly successful experiment in innovative use of IoT technology to enable the elderly to age-in-place in Singapore. https://icity.smu.edu.sg/shinesenior-overview
“The SHINESeniors project by SMU-TCS iCity Lab has created significant intellectual property in the space of personalization, sensors and embedded systems. The solution for non-intrusive monitoring of elderly at home, uses algorithms and digital technologies and aligns well with the concept of citizen-centric intelligent cities. The iCity Lab is a good example of collaboration under the TCS Co-Innovation Network (COIN™) program. We look forward to the iCity Lab pursuing more Smart Nation themes and creating an impact globally,” said Mr. K. Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, TCS.
With the renewed partnership, SMU-TCS iCity Lab will:
- Deepen and broaden capabilities of an IoT-enabled preventive care and self-care ecosystem, including new citizen segments.
- Explore how citizens can participate as consumer and producer of services to create a sustainable city, aligned with its vision of citizen-centric intelligent cities.
- Look at novel and viable business models, partnership models, care models and large scale deployments, using technologies such as AI and Machine Learning as necessary.
“Digital technology will be a key differentiator in how we deal with the problems of day-to-day living in intelligent cities of tomorrow. The extension of the SMU-TCS iCity Lab partnership gives us an opportunity to delve deeper into the emerging challenges of citizen services and health surveillance and develop collaborative, flexible and innovative solutions that align with Singapore’s agenda to be a Smart Nation, said Mr. Girish Ramachandran, President, TCS Asia Pacific.