MIT said yesterday that it is starting a new research centre in partnership with Nokia, as part of its Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). The new facility, called the Nokia Research Centre Cambridge, will focus specifically on advancing "the state of the art in mobile computing and communications", the two institutions said.

The research assumes that small mobile devices are not going anywhere anytime soon, and that they will become increasingly integrated into a so-called ecosystem of services, information and other devices. Researchers will be looking into new user interfaces, especially ones based on speech, low power hardware, as well as new software architectures and wireless communications technologies.

Researchers also plan to make use of the semantic web to develop new ways of managing information. MIT and Nokia says that this will allow researchers to develop devices that are more intuitive.

Around twenty scientists from Nokia, and an equal number from MIT will work at the Centre. Projects will be selected by a joint steering committee, but Dr. James Hicks from Nokia Research Centre with be the overall managing director. Professor Arvind, Johnson Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, will be the program manager. ®