The Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NEC Corporation today announced that NEC has joined the Microsystems Industrial Group (MIG), an exclusive ten member industry consortium.
The MIG was founded in the 1980s to support MTL infrastructure and provide direction to the Microsystems Technology Laboratories research and educational objectives in consultation with the faculty. NEC is the first Japanese company to join the group.
NEC decided to join MIG following participation in a number of preliminary meetings and a joint workshop held late last year. "We are thrilled to join MTL's Microsystems Industrial Group and look forward to building effective collaboration," said Dr. Takemitsu Kunio, Executive General Manager of NEC's Central Research Laboratories and Associate Senior Vice President at NEC. "We plan to dispatch NEC research staff to work on-site in the interactive and interdisciplinary environment at MIT in order to continue NEC's drive toward greater research excellence through open innovation." Dr. Fujio Okumura, Senior Manager at NEC's System Device Laboratory added, "We are excited to start collaborative research as a member of MIG. We aim to develop novel technology by working closely with MIT faculty including Professor Martin Schmidt."
Professor Chandrakasan commented, "We look forward to continued productive collaboration with NEC and our other MIG members in a number of research areas including MEMS, emerging device technologies, photonics, and low-power integrated circuits with applications in communications, medicine, and other disciplines." MTL is an interdisciplinary laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which more than 100 principal investigators from various academic departments perform research. The laboratory supports research and education in nanosystems, including semiconductor process and design, integrated circuit design, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
NEC's membership in the MIG is not the first time that NEC and the university have engaged in collaborative research. In the late 1970s, NEC's Chairman, Dr. Koji Kobayashi, began supporting research initiatives at MIT and became a dedicated advocate of industry-academic collaboration. This philosophy of collaboration extends to the present day in NEC's current chairman, Mr. Hajime Sasaki.
- Carl A. Accardo, Senior Advisor; MIT Industrial Liaison Program