Baidu and I2R set up joint laboratory in Singapore - 24/02/2012

Cutting-edge technologies to be developed at Baidu-I2R Research Centre (BIRC)

23rd February 2012 – The Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), a research institute of the Agency for Science and Technology Research (A*STAR), signed an agreement to establish a joint laboratory with Baidu, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. The joint-laboratory agreement was signed by Ms. Wang Mengqiu, Vice President of Baidu, and Dr. Tan Geok Leng, Acting Executive Director of I2R, today in Beijing.

The joint laboratory, which will be named Baidu-I2R Research Centre (BIRC), will operate as an R&D unit in I2R at Fusionopolis in Singapore. BIRC will concentrate on areas such as Southeast Asian Language Resources, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval and Information Extraction, Speech Information Processing and Multimedia Processing. The launch of BIRC marks an important step in Baidu’s commitment to enhance its products in Southeast Asia.

BIRC’s initial research focus will involve foundational Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies for Southeast Asian languages. I2R’s natural language processing technology allows users to input their native language into the search engine and Baidu’s “Box Computing” will be able to return precise results to the user. BIRC will focus on the Vietnamese and Thai languages in the initial phase.

“Baidu is thrilled to be joining forces with I�0�5R for this joint laboratory. Our overlap and complementary expertise in our research areas make us perfect partners,” said Wang Mengqiu, Vice President, Baidu. “Our knowledge of Chinese allows us to deliver the best possible user experience to our Chinese users and was fundamental to winning the market,” Ms. Wang continued. “Now, together with I�0�5R we are laying the foundations to deliver an equally good user experience to users in other markets,” she said.

Dr Tan Geok Leng, Acting Executive Director of I�0�5R said: “Baidu has some of the world’s leading search core technology, and I�0�5R is very excited about establishing BIRC together with such a strong technology partner. We hope that the innovative achievements this partnership yields will enable us to fulfil the constantly evolving needs of netizens from different regions.”

Source: A*Star