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SWITZERLAND
Cutting-Edge ICT Sector Benefits
from Local R&D
The Canton of Zurich has become a highly sought after
location for companies involved in knowledge and
value creation, including ICT enterprises. International
ICT leaders like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Cisco
Systems, Siemens, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, T-Systems,
Sony Overseas, Sun Microsystems and EDS are active
in the greater Zurich area and benefit from the canton’s
excellent business and research environment.
Foreign investors will find a large pool of multilingual
ICT professionals in the Canton of Zurich who are
experienced in developing software and solutions for
a wide range of industries, including for the control
of manufacturing and automation equipment, mobile
services, Internet services, banking and pharmaceutical
applications, among others. Opportunities for
investment in the canton’s ICT sector include research
partnerships, establishing support and sales subsidiaries,
and setting up international headquarters.
Internationally renowned research and
education institutes
A major attraction of the Zurich area for ICT companies
is the presence of internationally renowned research
and education institutes which have a history of close
collaboration with the business sector. Microsoft Switzerland
partners with the prestigious Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in a
research programme focusing on systems software and
is currently funding seven projects, including one on
boosting computer security and another on making
super computers more portable.
IBM has opened its wafer processing lab to a university
research group in a project through which students test
and refine the design of cutting-edge devices; IBM not
only receives functioning prototypes but also access to
a steady supply of trained engineers who can work with
the newest technologies.
In the fast-growing field of bioinformatics, ETHZ
offers courses through an interdisciplinary program
at its Institute of Computational Science. Zurich based
researchers have developed a powerful new bioinformatics
programming language known as DARWIN and
are participating in BioOpera, an important component
in grid computing for bioinformatics. Sun Microsystems
has invested in ETHZ as a Centre of Excellence in biomedical
research.
At the University of Zurich, long time data archiving is
the focus of a study for the Database Technology Group.
ETHZ’s hyper-database research group and information
and communication systems research group specialise
in middleware systems and heterogeneous database
systems, while the Computer Graphics Laboratory
explores new fundamental methods for interactive
image acquisition and generation, scientific visualisation,
virtual reality and medical simulation.
Global leaders choose Zurich
The canton’s highly skilled, multilingual workforce is
a key reason IBM has been operating its European
research centre in the Zurich area on its own campus
in Rüschlikon since 1962. The mission of the IBM
Research Zurich lab is “to cultivate close relationships
with academic and industrial partners, serve as one of
the premier places to work for world-class researchers,
promote women in IT and science, and to help
drive Europe’s innovation agenda,” according to its
mission statement. Employing a diverse multinational
staff of highly qualified professionals, IBM Research
Zurich is involved in many joint projects with universities
throughout Europe, in research programs
established by the EU and the Swiss government, and
in co-operation agreements with research institutes of
industrial partners.
Google chose Zurich for its European R&D centre and
opened its innovative new offices there in January 2008.
The Zurich operation is Google’s biggest outside the
US, covering some 12,000 sq m and employing over
300 engineers of more than 40 different nationalities.
Focuses of Google’s Zurich centre include product management
and software engineering. Google’s Zurich
based software engineers are developing next generation
technologies and working on advanced informa-
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