Research Center in Silicon Valley Established
Furukawa Electric Further Strengthens Its Open Innovation and Global Industrial-Academic Collaboration
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. has established a research center in the Silicon Valley area of California, United States in order to further strengthen its open innovation and global industrial-academic collaboration activities, with the opening ceremony held on August 13 of this year. This overseas research center is Furukawa Electric’s fourth, following establishments in Hungary (Furukawa Electric Institute of Technology) and in the United States (OFS Fitel, LLC and SuperPower Inc.).
Background
With the tremendous progress of technologies such as AI and the IoT, measures to create new technologies to address social challenges, such as achieving SDGs, and to address the rapid changes to the business environment occurring throughout society have become essential for business growth. Silicon Valley is a major beacon of global innovation, being a hub of personnel, cultures, capital, and technology, and also a place where numerous platform businesses and startups(note 1) gather.
Details
Furukawa Electric has established a research center in the Silicon Valley area of California, holding the opening ceremony on August 13 of this year. We are ramping up industrial-academic partnerships with local major universities and partnerships with other businesses in order to gather information on cutting-edge technologies and markets, drive open innovation(note 2), and play our part in disruptive innovation. Furthermore, we have also opened a booth at Plug and Play Silicon Valley, one of the world’s largest accelerators, in order to search for promising startups.
| Name: | Silicon Valley Innovation Laboratories, Furukawa Electric |
|---|---|
| Location: | 1871 The Alameda, Suite 350, San Jose, CA95126, U.S.A. |
| Representative: | Noriyuki Yokouchi, Ph.D. (General Manager) |
(note 1)Startup: A fast-growing company that creates an unprecedented business model with its unique technology and ideas, and challenges existing markets.
(note 2)Open innovation: A framework for co-creation of innovative businesses and services that is facilitated by cooperation outside of a company, rather than by relying solely on the company’s own managerial resources and technology.
About Furukawa Electric Group
Furukawa Electric (TSE; 5801, ISIN; JP3827200001) Group started business in 1884, when its copper-smelting facility and wire manufacturing factory was established. Since then Furukawa Electric has become pioneers in the latest technologies by addressing diverse technological issues. Furukawa Electric has released products in a number of areas, including telecommunications, electronics, automobiles, and construction, with the three types of materials it works with at their core, namely, optics, plastics, and metals. Many of these products have attained the top global market share, and all of its products have contributed to society in numerous business areas. Furukawa Electric reported consolidated revenues of JPY 967.3 billion (approximately USD 8.7B) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018.
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