IBM, one of the world's top information technology (IT) companies, has taken another step to strengthen its partnership with Singapore which began in 1953, when the company first established a branch office here.

In December 2010, the company announced the IBM Smarter Cities Research Collaboratory programme with the city-state, wherein researchers from IBM team up with scientists and engineers from public agencies in Singapore to improve the quality of its urban services.

Seeking Future Urban Solutions

Today The IBM-Singapore collaboratory, which looks at developing forward-looking urban solutions, is set to drive innovation in Singapore, a country which presents itself as the perfect partner in this endeavour. Even though the city-state is a small, highly urban environment with no natural resources, it succeeds in addressing many of the challenges similar citystates face, even transforming some into economic opportunities through sheer innovation.

For instance, Singapore developed expertise in areas such as traffic management, urban planning and water technology, which are now exported to cities overseas.

Moreover, the city-state has also been at the forefront of the global stage in rallying for sustainable and liveable cities for the future. In addition to promoting a learning network through the hosting of the biennial World Cities Summit, the country also aims to serve as a "living lab” for various companies to test-bed innovative solutions for densely populated and compact urban environments.

To advance these endeavours and help Singapore realise its plans to improve quality of life, IBM will work closely with agencies such as the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA), to develop decision support tools which will help Singapore effectively manage its resources, particularly water, energy and transport.

Following the success of the world's first electronic road toll collection system (ERP), which effectively manages traffic congestion problems, one of the initial projects under the collaboratory will be with the LTA and focuses on smarter transport to further mitigate and address traffic congestion. The research will build upon the work done by IBM Research to provide traffic prediction and will provide decision support analytics for improved traffic management.

The collaboratory also seeks to build strong research alliances with the country's leading universities. This will create a vibrant research community that is engaged in creating leading-edge solutions, testing them locally and deploying them globally. As a start, initial discussions with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are underway.

Other areas of potential research are aimed at energy and water management and may include: Distributed and mobile energy resources management including electric vehicles, storage, renewables and demand response; analytics and optimisation-based techniques for managing the supply and demand of energy on a SmartGrid; building energy use forecasting and management; water quality monitoring and early event detection; and modelling energy use over the water cycle and designing control strategies.

Vote of Confidence for Singapore

The IBM-Singapore collaboratory is one of the many progressive ventures in place, wherein IT is the key facilitator for many of the new solutions being developed for urban living. As Singapore focuses its efforts on becoming a trusted IT hub in possession of skilled talent that understands both the IT industry and conducting business, the country is the ideal location for companies to set up base to orchestrate, strategise and grow their operations.

The city-state has established capabilities such as excellent logistics connectivity, easy access to an educated global talent pool and a robust intellectual property protection regime, which will allow its partners to undertake a host of business activities, from deployment of urban solutions for global markets to research and development. Therefore, IT companies across the value chain are drawn to Singapore, which is already home to more than 80 global IT software and services companies.

It is such conditions that drew IBM to collaborate further with Singapore. Here, IT companies also get to test-bed solutions in real-world settings before commercializing them globally, something the IBM-Singapore collaborator can offer. "We are glad that IBM has chosen Singapore to be the location for this collaboratory. It is a strong vote of confidence for Singapore and, in particular, for our 'Living Labs' programme. This investment also reflects the strong alliance that Singapore and IBM have forged over the years, an alliance that is underpinned by a shared vision where innovation is a key driver for sustainable growth," said Dr Beh Swan Gin, Managing Director, EDB.