Huawei has upgraded its Singapore innovation centre, OpenLab, as Asia Pacific OpenLab 3.0. This is a follow-up to OpenLab 1.0 and OpenLab 2.0.
The original Singapore OpenLab was launched by Huawei in 2016.
The US$20 million (S$26.5 million) upgradation aims to ensure that the benefit of the innovation labs within OpenLab 3.0 was available to not only Singapore but the entire Asia Pacific region.
The upgraded centre was inaugurated on March 31 by Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), Vice President, Goh Pei Sheng.
Huawei has established OpenLabs across the globe, in Suzhou, Munich, Istanbul, Dubai, and beyond, jointly developed and launched technologies and solutions with more than 400 partners worldwide.
The upgraded lab in Singapore is Huawei’s latest regional centre of joint solution innovation, solution research and development (R&D), partner enablement and development, and industry experience.
Serving as the base for ecosystem cooperation in the region, Huawei envisages bringing together industry talents and Infocomm Technology (ICT) capabilities, from across the region at OpenLab 3.0.
The lab provides end-to-end integration enablement prowess, ranging from requirements gathering and product design to development and interoperability verification testing, supporting the build-up of a sustainable ecosystem for partners to synergise, share, and incubate new solutions.
Partners can expect seamless integration processes and maintenance services for products and solutions with Huawei's industry-leading technology and expertise, resulting in greater sales success and more satisfied customers.
Booming digital economy
Huawei’s APAC Enterprise Business Group President, Nicholas Ma, said the booming digital economy in the Asia Pacific region will lead to new innovative services and applications.
“To accelerate the digitalisation of industries, a more open and diversified industry ecosystem is required… OpenLab 3.0 is a global technology platform for partners and institutions of higher learning (IHLs) in the Asia Pacific region. It provides innovative industry solutions based on the demands of various industries and continuously contributes to building a digital Asia Pacific region,” Ma said.
To date, Huawei’s OpenLab in Singapore has welcomed over 6000 industry visitors from the Asia Pacific region and forged collaborations with more than 100 partners to create customer-centric solutions.
Huawei will continue to work with partners to build an industry ecosystem, accelerating digital transformation in public service, finance, transportation, energy and more industries, and cultivate future-oriented capabilities to strengthen Singapore's position as the regional hub of innovation.
There are four different labs within OpenLabs 3.0. They are:
Smart Campus Lab: This is a unified, interconnected digital infrastructure encompassing video cloud, IoT, ICP, and GIS platforms, among others. These platforms enable the smart, interconnected management of multiple businesses.
The lab demonstrates Huawei's ICT capabilities of working with partners to create business value for customers through cross-scenario applications in industries, to build green, energy-saving, secure, comfortable, efficient, and smart campuses that unlock greater economic and social benefits. The lab is committed to facilitating campus management and improving the experience for campus managers, employees, and visitors.
Intelligent Collaboration Lab: The lab is focused on the education and office scenarios, enabling local education and office innovation through the applications of cutting edge technology.
It facilitates the implementation of innovative teaching methods to expand classroom capabilities and cater to individualised needs. The smart classroom environment is equipped with functions such as digital classroom, hybrid classroom, collaborative classroom and on-demand recording, which contribute to improved quality and efficiency in learning, as well as constructing a new learning environment. The lab is also equipped with smart office features designed to improve the efficiency of online and offline office meetings.
Intelligent Sensing Lab: The lab is dedicated to converged video sensing, fibre sensing and wireless sensing (radar). Video sensing focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and video engineering capability. Huawei’s optical field simulation system and comprehensive test case library provide powerful function verification for video AI capability.
Fibre sensing is researched and used in perimeter security, which is created from Huawei's most advanced optical communication technologies. The wireless sensing (radar) is derived from Huawei's leading 5G Massive MIMO technology, which can detect further, clearer, and more completely. The lab enables third-party platform adaptation by converging the video sensing, fibre sensing and wireless sensing together, and supporting partners to integrate the single or multiple sensing systems.
Converge Command, Control & Communication (C4) Lab: The C4 lab provides the most advanced command and control solutions to first responders and security operations by applying Huawei’s latest ICT technologies such as 5G, eLTE, and working with ecosystem partners to converge all technologies that offer voice, video, data communication and even the latest computer vision and AI capabilities. This lab has incubated the most comprehensive and advanced C2 (Command and Control) systems to increase the situational awareness of daily operations, responsiveness and efficiency to emergency incidents, of our value customers across the Asia Pacific region.
Cloud OpenLab, a partner-oriented solution integration and verification platform was also launched at the inauguration, as an additional lab within OpenLab 3.0.
Huawei International CEO, Foo Fang Yong, said OpenLab 1.0 to 2.0 was looking at tomorrow from today’s perspective.
OpenLab 3.0, on the other hand, is cooperating with our partners to look at tomorrow from the day after tomorrow’s perspective and explore more possibilities in the future through our comprehensive innovative R&D capabilities and investment, incubating and enabling more future-oriented local applications and innovative solutions, while promoting them to the entire Asia Pacific region to support digital transformation of various industries, Foo said.
Chinasoft International Global Business Division President, Simon Chung, and Maxxmedia International Director-Founder, Jeffrey Yam, both Huawei partners, shared their collaboration journey with Huawei in incubating smart campus and smart classroom solutions respectively at the inauguration event.
Huawei Asia Pacific President of Public Affairs and Communications, Jun Zhang, shared about Huawei’s talent development model PIPES.
"Standing for Platforms, Innovation, Professionalism, Experience, and Skills, PIPES delivers targeted talent programmes for individuals from all walks of life, in order to foster an inclusive talent ecosystem in the Asia Pacific region. Open Lab 3.0, a platform for innovation, experience and know-how sharing, exemplifies our talent-centric commitment, and is set to emerge as a pivotal hub for talent cultivation across the region,” Jun said.
