A U.S. information technology convergence center opened Tuesday a branch laboratory at a free economic region in Incheon, west of Seoul, to begin work on cutting-edge electronic technologies, the government said, according to Yonhap News.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology run by the State University of New York at Stony Brook will fuel international cooperation in the wireless, communication fields and IT convergence. Its main laboratory is in Long Island and staffed by over 400 researchers.
"The opening of CEWIT Korea is expected to help the country develop `original` technology in the IT sector that is a key future economic growth engine," the ministry said in a statement.
The laboratory will start work with 16 researchers, with six coming from the United States, but total numbers will be increased to 45. It is located in the Songdo International City region of the Incheon Free Economic Zone 40 kilometers west of Seoul.
Oh Myung, president of Konkuk University and a former science minister has been named the first head of the board along with six Korean and U.S. board members.
CEWIT is one of the leading convergence and wireless IT laboratories in the United States and has joint research and development arrangements with 530 companies including such multinational companies as Motorola, Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Northrop Grumman and Cisco. It is ranked 12th among U.S. research centers in terms of technology royalty earnings.
It recently secured a research project worth $12.5 million from the U.S. government to carry out studies on "smart energy" development that could greatly raise power efficiency.