Indra and the university of Oviedo create chair to develop innovative technologies for real-time systems

The Rector of the University of Oviedo, Vicente Gotor; and Indra’s Director of Innovation, José Luis Angoso, signed today October 18th at the campus of the University of Gijón’s an agreement to consolidate cooperation bonds between both institutions. The objective is the creation of a Chair to research and develop state-of-the-art and innovative solutions for the sector of real-time systems.

The Regional Minister of Economy and Employment of the Principality of Asturias, José Manuel Rivero; the Councilor of Economic Development and Employment of the City Council of Gijón, Fernando Couto; the Director of Gijón Polytechnic School of Engineering, Hilario López; and the Director of Indra's Software Labs in Gijón, Venancio Ranz, among others, attended the event.

The Indra Chair at the University of Oviedo aims to carry out specific R&D+i projects related to the tools for the management of systems in real time. That is, critical systems which are expected to respond in a specific and short time to changes in the environment. The systems can be used, for instance, in the air traffic or railway control fields, security, energy or telecommunications.

The Chair will be based at Gijon Polytechnic School of Engineering. Javier Tuya, Professor and PhD of the University of Oviedo, will be its Director. The activities of the Chair will pursue collaboration between both institutions, boost technology transfer, joint dissemination actions, facilitate training and offer practices in Indra for the students of the university. The IT multinational will also offer an award for a final-year project.

Stable collaboration

The Chair is a natural result of over three years of cooperation and builds a stable collaboration framework for both institutions. The high qualification and the degrees of the University of Oviedo’s research groups make a perfect match with projects delivered by Indra which suggests a closer collaboration.

The Software Lab and the Centre of Excellence have also contributed to this cooperation. The Centre of Excellence, located at the Science and Technology Park of Gijón, is specialised in cutting-edge solutions for air traffic and gives support to this line of business worldwide. Currently, the staff of the centre includes aeronautic, industrial, telecommunications and information technologies engineers, mathematicians and physicists, most of them coming from the University of Oviedo.

Indra’s Software Lab in Gijón, started operations in early 2008, at the former Universidad Laboral, Cabueñes. The centre is part of Indra’s Software Labs network which is made up of 20 centres distributed across Europe, Asia and Latin America. The network employs over 4000 professionals specialised in high-level software development for all the sectors where Indra is active.

Indra in Asturias

In Asturias Indra employs over 100 professionals in Oviedo and Gijón.

One of the most outstanding projects delivered in the area was the computerization and implementation of the electronic medical records in several hospitals of the Regional healthcare system. Besides this, we should also mention references in Railway transport like FEVE, RENFE and the Consortium of Transport of Asturias. Furthermore, TELECABLE and CajAstur are also clients of the company.

CajAstur is shareholder of the company with 5% participation. 

The University as a source of innovation and talent

The Chair of the University of Oviedo is within the framework of Indra's commitment to innovation which is a pillar of its business and the core of its sustainability as a company. For the IT multinational, universities are a critical source of knowledge necessary to maintain its commitment to innovation. For this reason, the company has relations with 150 universities and research centres mainly through Chairs, agreements and R&D+i projects in order to become an international benchmark in terms of company-university technology transfer.

This is the thirteenth Chair Indra creates in collaboration with different universities.

Indra

Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to investment in R&D with nearly € 500 M during the last three years. In 2010 revenues reached € 2,557 M of which a 40% came from the international market. The company employs more than 31,000 professionals and has clients in more than 110 countries.