This week, Smartness (Research Center for Engineering in Intelligent Networks and Services for 2030) was inaugurated – constituted by FAPESP and Ericsson at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). The launch took place in the auditorium of the Annex Building, in Unicamp’s Scientific and Technological Park.
The purpose of the new center is to explore innovative solutions in telecommunications that help in the design and construction of cloud computing infrastructures and cognitive networks driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence, for the development of the next generation of 5G and 6G connectivity services.
“Our challenge is to look to the future and think about the services and applications that will demand a set of new technologies over the next ten years. The applications that are talked about today with the arrival of 5G, but that the fifth generation of internet will not fully meet” he told the Inova Unicamp Press Office Christian Esteve Rothenberg professor at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC-Unicamp) and researcher responsible for Smartness .
SMARTNESS (English acronym for Smart Networks and Services) is based on the campus of Campinas and has the participation of professors and researchers from FEEC and the Institute of Computing (IC-Unicamp).
THE master researcher from Ericsson, Maria Valéria Marquezini, will be the deputy director of the research center. In total, more than 50 experts in electrical engineering, computing, telecommunications or related areas will participate in the project, which will explore the programmability, elasticity, scalability and automation expected from next-generation intelligent networks and services.
In addition to Unicamp and Ericsson Research, the hub has the participation of researchers from the universities of São Paulo (USP) and Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos), in addition to the federal universities of São Carlos (UFSCar), ABC (UFABC) , from Amazonas (UFAM), from Espírito Santo (UFES), from Goiás (UFG), from Pará (UFPA), from Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), from Campina Grande (UFCG), from Ceará (UECE), from Uberlândia (UFU), Bahia (UFBA), Minas Gerais (UFMG), Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and Pampa (Unipampa).
6G research pole
Smartness is part of the Engineering Research Centers Program (CPEs) by FAPESP, which associates the creation of research centers in partnership between universities and companies to foster technological innovation. The agreement announced in the first semester had negotiations intermediated with the support of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency, which will also provide support in activities to stimulate innovation, entrepreneurship and support the management of intellectual property.
“The Smartness center is an unprecedented initiative in Brazil and Latin America. A state-of-the-art research center in the area of telecommunications and computer networks, focused on the development of advanced mobile connectivity services from different perspectives of industry, academia and society, strengthening Brazil’s protagonism and expanding its competitive power” explained Mateus Santos, head of research at Ericsson in Brazil.
The initiative creates an intellectually challenging and favorable environment for research in science and technology, focused on the innovation and development of 5G networks, being implemented in Brazil, and the preparation for 6G. Smartness’ mission will be to produce research at the frontier of knowledge, for the development of technologies, with the potential to create impact and technological innovation.
The group will develop traffic processing technologies to speed up communication in a distributed way, increasing the interconnection of everyday objects and allowing Internet uses that would not be possible with the current infrastructure. Advances that will be leveraged in robotic arms for industrial and healthcare applications, sensors, cars, educational and training rooms with augmented reality glasses, just to name a few.
long term financing
Given the complexity of the problems addressed, Smartness will have long-term funding with autonomy in the use of resources. Financial and non-financial investments will amount to R$56 million, spread over ten years. FAPESP will invest a total of R$ 14 million in the new center, the same amount reserved for investment by the co-financier Ericsson.
The Swedish company will implement the technological infrastructure for the new research work. Another portion, of R$ 28 million, will come from Unicamp, as an economic counterpart, in the form of salaries for researchers and support staff, infrastructure and facilities.
The results generated will produce publications of international impact and can be used by Ericsson in its products or services, to establish partnerships with other companies or even to foster entrepreneurship and technology-based innovation in the country, with the formation of small companies and spin-offs academic. In parallel, the center will also help train a highly qualified workforce for the future challenges of the Internet.
“We have a great opportunity with the launch of Smartness and we hope to capture talent that is committed to the center’s vision. Few programs offer such long-term sustainable funding. We also see it as a way to keep these professionals in Brazil, in the face of such a heated market in the area” highlighted Rothenberg.