Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) and Deutsche Telekom work with partners to research and develop new information and communications technologies for the future.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Deutsche Telekom Chairman Kai-Uwe Ricke, and Professor Dr. Kurt Kutzler, President of the Technical University of Berlin, inaugurated T Laboratories today in Berlin. Deutsche Telekom's new R&D institute will be an affíliated institute of the TU Berlin where top scientists from all over the world will research and develop new services and solutions for Deutsche Telekom customers.
"We want to pool all of our strengths and combine the best of science and industry. That's precisely our motivation for creating the research and development partnership between TU Berlin and Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom will use systematic innovation management to work continuously on new products and services for customers," explained Ricke.
With the creation of T-Labs, Deutsche Telekom is bridging the gap between science and industry, in order to transform ideas into marketable innovations as quickly as possible.
One important factor for the interlinking of science and industry is an international scientific network. Leading international partners - both research institutes and companies - are selected for each subject area. For example, cooperative projects are in progress with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in the area of user interfaces, with Ben Gurion University in Israel on network security, and with Stanford University in California on mobile broadband Internet. Additional partners are Microsoft and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.
Talks are underway concerning joint projects with industrial partners such as SUN, Daimler Chrysler, France Télécom, and Infineon.
A team of renowned scientists has been working in the former Telefunken building since the institute was founded in April 2004. A total of 75 highly-qualified jobs, including 25 for Deutsche Telekom employees and 50 for international researchers are planned. Scientists from the United States, China, India, Greece, Germany, and other countries will cooperate in joint projects. Their work will be practically oriented and they will be able to pursue their scientific career paths at the same time.
Four Deutsche Telekom endowed chairs will be created at TU Berlin by the end of 2005 to investigate the main topics for development: Security (security in telecommunications), Usability (user friendliness), Intelligent Networks (service-oriented network operation), and Media Technology (universal access, applications, and services). Broadband technology will be the overall focus of research activities, including the areas of artificial intelligence, voice control, and automation, i.e. future user interfaces. New technologies for man-machine communication will be tested in which voice and gesture recognition, for example, will allow a natural dialog with Deutsche Telekom terminal equipment and services.
"The inauguration of the affiliated institute shows that strengths are being pooled in Berlin that will promote it as a location and enhance its reputation far beyond its borders," said TU President Professor Kurt Kutzler of the new institute. "We anticipate major momentum for the area of research and for the development of application-oriented products. This joint initiative will also be very beneficial for our students. Future engineers and up-and-coming scientists will find an innovative, cutting-edge environment here."
T-Laboratories will be run by an interdisciplinary leadership team: Peter Möckel, Deutsche Telekom expert in strategy and technology development, has assumed overall managerial responsibility. Professor Dr. Bernd Girod of Stanford University will be responsible for the scientific orientation and quality of the institute. T Laboratories are an integral part of the Group and belong to Deutsche Telekom's Innovation department. At the same time, their status as an affiliated institute, a scientific institute governed by private law, means they can employ professors. This concept allows Deutsche Telekom to combine its own Innovation department with the potential offered by scientific research and teaching worldwide, enabling it to constantly offer its customers state-of-the-art products and services.
Contact:
Deutsche Telekom, Press Office, telephone : +49 228/181-4949
TU Berlin, Press Office, telephone: +49 30/314-23922, E mail: pressestelle@tu-berlin.de