IBM investing in Ontario R&D laboratory

Winnipeg Free Press > Business > IBM investing in Ontario R&D laboratory

TORONTO -- International Business Machines Corp. is launching its first formal technology and development lab in Canada through a $175-million investment over the at once 21 months in a consortium with seven Ontario universities, the company said Tuesday.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based innovation giant has about a dozen R&D centres around the world. Its original lab, the Thomas J. Watson facility in New England, is maybe best-known for its development of the Watson computer that faced off against Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings.

The IBM Canada Innovation

The IBM Canada Innovation and Development Centre will include two of the company's "Blue Gene/Q supercomputers" at the University of Toronto, cloud computing infrastructure at Western University in London, Ont., and a 25,000-square-foot IBM data centre in Barrie, Ont., set to open later this year.

Also involved are McMaster University, Queens University, the University of Ontario Institute of Research, the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo.

The consortium is not closed

But the consortium is not closed, said John Lutz, president of IBM Canada, noting other schools and businesses could join over time.