Microvision, developer of cutting-edge display miniaturization technology like the PicoP® platform for pico projectors, vehicle and wearable displays that interface with mobile devices, reported today the opening of a new R&D center at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
This new research facility will be largely dedicated to perfecting applications of the Company’s PicoP® Display technology and will be staffed in short order by MVIS with roughly 25 engineers by 2012. This facility will also be handling the Company’s ongoing R&D of the over 500 issued/pending patents that make up MVIS’s industry leading technology portfolio and houses a fully customized laboratory at NTU’s Innovation Centre.
A memorandum of understanding was also jointly signed today by NTU’s President-Designate and Provost, Professor Bertil Andersson and CEO of MVIS, Alexander Tokman. This new facility will allow MVIS to benefit from the vast engineering, microelectronics and materials science expertise that the university is well known for. The Company is thus tapping into the student/faculty for new ideas and collaborative support of the R&D process while providing the university with a major educational resource that will afford many an internship.
Tokman explained the decision to pick NTU and Singapore as a site for the Company’s first global R&D facility, citing the centralized location of Singapore with regard to the Company’s manufacturers/customers and the fact that Singapore is something of a technology mecca, and has become a major hub for technical talent. Students at NTU tend to reflect this situation and offer some of the best examples, which should provide a valuable source of untapped technical genius as the Company moves its R&D programs forward.
Professor Andersson brought up the Company’s original interest at setting up the new facility in Taiwan and how NTU’s reputation for computing, engineering and research excellence swayed MVIS over to Singapore. The Company will be working directly with the university’s schools of electrical and electronic engineering as well as the physics/applied physics departments and MVIS has a strong track record for such initiatives, having pioneered such efforts with Stanford, MIT and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute.
This dedication to constant research and development is why MVIS’s patent portfolio has been ranked in the top 20 three years running by IEEE. The Company has already secured partnerships with major industry heavyweights like Rolls-Royce, Robert Bosch, Thales, and Toray to provide the kinds of next-gen MVIS display solutions this new facility at NTU will be developing.
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