MUNICH, April 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced that the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Bavarian State
Minister for Education and Culture, Science and Art Dr.
Ludwig Spaenle are visiting its
global Watson Internet of Things (IoT) headquarters in Munich, home of the industry's first cognitive
"collaboratories." Today's visit will demonstrate how leading
automobile manufacturers, financial, research institutions and
other co-location partners are successfully collaborating with IBM
experts to turn Germany into the
global center of IoT and Industry 4.0 and foster its role as a
leading industrialized country.
Earlier this year, IBM announced the official opening of its
global Watson IoT headquarters, which is part of the company's most
significant investment made in Europe in the last two decades. At the heart
of the facility are new cognitive collaboratories that bring
together clients, IBM Business Partners and IBM's 1,000
Munich-based IoT experts, all
focused on a singular goal of pushing the boundaries of what is
possible across all industries.
As part of his visit, Federal President Steinmeier will tour the
center and see demonstrations of some of the innovative cognitive
IoT projects that are underway today including:
- A cognitive visual inspection solution that learns over time,
leveraging many patterns of visual inspection such as
impurity/high-contrast areas, geometry detection and verification,
abnormal texture area detection and color/brightness feature
extraction and verification to determine quality defects.
- A connected car solution that uses map and driver analytics to
gain vehicle and driver insight. This insight offers advice on
driving changes drivers can use to improve fuel efficiency while
monitoring the technical health of the car to predict maintenance
needs based on actual car usage. It
even includes security solutions that significantly raise
the barriers to hackers and adapt preventative measures.
"We are honored to host Federal President Steinmeier at our
global Watson IoT headquarters where great technology minds are
coming together in the spirit of innovation," said Harriet Green, General Manager, IBM Watson IoT,
Customer Engagement and Education. "Collaboration across borders
and industries is key when it comes to turning inspirational ideas
into truly transformative solutions that will make Munich the global center for both IoT and
Industry 4.0."
Global interest in IBM's collaboratories continues to grow as
businesses and other institutions recognize the potential of these
centers to spawn new innovative ideas.
Today IBM also announced the latest co-location partner fortiss,
a research institute associated with the Technical University of
Munich, the largest and most
notable German technology institute with alumni that includes 13
Nobel laureates. Dedicated to spurring new transformative
innovation in the region, fortiss's team of PhD and postgraduates
will work with IBM in the areas of cognitive robotics and smart
manufacturing systems. The collaboration will initially focus on
two areas:
- Cognitive Robotics: fortiss will work to add new cognitive
capabilities to robots that enable them to learn and decide on
their own to improve specific tasks. These capabilities compliment
fortiss' realization of flexible robot systems and enhance the
intuitive fortiss programming concepts and human-robot-cooperation
concepts being used today.
- Cognitive Manufacturing / Industry 4.0: fortiss will make
manufacturing processes smarter by applying cognitive IoT
capabilities that allow systems to more easily adapt to business
challenges such as enabling more flexible production. This is
specifically relevant as demand for smaller lot sizes continues to
increase, raising the need for more flexible and efficient
manufacturers systems.
"The fortiss team is dedicated to researching new ways that IoT
can transform technologies and ultimately bring new levels of
efficiency and productivity to industries such as manufacturing,"
said Prof. Helmut Krcmar of fortiss.
"As the IoT leader in the region, we are excited to work
side-by-side with IBM's top minds and together give life to new
innovations that can have a transformative impact on both
businesses and consumers around the world."
Today IBM's Watson IoT headquarters is home to co-location and
ecosystem partners from various industries including Avnet, BMW,
BNP Paribas, Bragi, HARMAN, Tech Mahindra, EEBus alliance,
UnternehmerTUM innovation center and others.
About IBM Watson IoT
IBM is an established leader in
the Internet of Things with more than 6,000 client engagements in
170 countries, a growing ecosystem of over 1,400 partners and more
750 IoT patents which together help to draw actionable insight from
billions of connected devices, sensors and systems around the
world. For more information on IBM Watson IoT, please visit
www.ibm.com/iot.
Doug Fraim
IBM Media Relations
dfraim@us.ibm.com
617-501-6376
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SOURCE IBM