Corning Inc. recently opened a research and development center in Montreal, Canada focused on discovering and developing software solutions for the telecommunications industry. “The Corning Technology Center Montreal will serve as Corning’s global center of software innovation to support emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, cloud computing, and data analytics, as well as software solutions for optical-wireless networks,” the company said when announcing the center’s opening. “Software engineers from Corning’s research, development, and engineering organization will collaborate with developers from iBwave Solutions, the Montreal-based provider of networking software solutions that Corning acquired in 2015.”
The company also pointed out the Montreal site joins its network of research-and-development laboratories in North America, Europe, and Asia. “Over the next three to five years, Corning intends to hire software engineers, development team managers, and data analysts at the Montreal center,” the company added.
Claudio Mazzali, senior vice president of technology for the Corning Optical Communications business segment, commented, “The combination of transformative technologies and applications such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things depends on the optical connectivity solutions made possible by Corning’s innovations. The work that will take place here in our Montreal technology center will extend Corning’s innovation capabilities beyond optical transport and connectivity, all the way to the intelligence required to deploy and enable those applications. Montreal is emerging as a major center of software innovation, and Corning is glad to be part of it.”
The center’s initial focus will be software solutions for telecommunications networks, which Corning says will help its customers to “unlock opportunities presented by emerging technologies. It will eventually become a hub for software innovation across all of Corning’s business segments.”
David Morse, Corning’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, added, “In addition to the immediate and near-term applications in optical communications systems, what is also very exciting to me about Corning Technology Center Montreal is how these new capabilities in software, artificial intelligence, and machine learning will support a corporate strategic initiative in materials and process informatics, and modeling across our technologies and businesses. I am delighted to welcome the CTCM team to Corning’s global network of technology centers.”
Corning further announced that CTCM will build ties to the region’s software-innovation community through membership in IVADO, a Montreal-based research institute for data science, operational research, and artificial intelligence.
IVADO’s chief executive officer Gilles Savard said, “Our data science ecosystem will greatly benefit from collaborative projects with the Corning Technology Center Montreal, bridging academic expertise and business needs. We are thrilled to welcome Corning as our newest IVADO member and look forward to working together on developing innovative digital solutions for the telecommunications industry.”
MILA is a Montreal-based research institute for artificial intelligence. MILA’s president and chief executive officer Valérie Pisano, added, “We are delighted to see Corning, one of the world’s most innovative companies, joining the thriving technology community in Montreal—further raising the region’s profile as a hub for software research and development.”