In an effort to accelerate innovation and new technologies, Sony has announced the launch of the Sony Research Award Program for North American Universities.
The program is an academic awards scheme to provide US universities with funding for technology research projects, alongside collaboration with Sony’s own research division. Comprising two submission categories: Faculty Innovation Awards and the 2016 Focus Research Awards, each award has been developed to provide new opportunities for a faculty to engage and participate in forward-thinking research, with the aim of creating breakthrough technologies for future industries and markets.
The Faculty Innovation Awards will allow institutions submitting research projects that fall within Sony’s current general research interests to gain up to $100,000 USD. These categories include: Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), Autonomous Driving and Robotics.
While the Annual Focused Research Award will attribute $150,000 USD for one year, with the possibility of an extension, to conduct research in the areas of Sony’s immediate interest. Academic faculties will need to explore and progress research across several areas including: Sensor Fusion for Automotive Application, Image-based Photo-realistic Rendering, High-accuracy Inertial Navigation System and Evolving Reinforcement Learning.
For universities interested in making a proposal, they can be submitted by university Principal Investigators, as well as assistant, associate and full professors. Objectives, publication and patents will be agreed mutually between the awarding institution and Sony. The application deadline is 30th September, 2016, with award winners announced during February, 2017.
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