NTU and Saab partnership to develop innovative high-end digital technology

Defence and security company Saab and Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), one of the world’s leading research-intensive institutions, will set up a joint research centre as part of a collaboration to develop research projects and programmes in high-end digital technology.

To initiate the partnership, NTU and Saab signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today (18 October) at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, before the start of the two-day Wallenberg Autonomous Systems and Software Programme (WASP)-NTU Workshop.

“The collaboration is an important milestone for both parties. It is a significant gesture on the part of Saab, a clear signal of its new research focus in Singapore and Asia. NTU is proud to be Saab’s partner of choice as we together forge a long-term partnership in research excellence“, said Prof Bertil Andersson, President of NTU.

A key focus of the Saab-NTU Joint Research Centre is air traffic management, with research into areas such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, machine learning, computer vision, anomaly detection and unmanned aircraft system camera insertion. Another focus area is underwater robotics, looking at research in robot perception (sensing, detection and navigation) and endurance (energy storage .and reliability).

“Saab has a long history of collaborating with academia. Earlier research projects have all been located in Sweden, tied to Swedish universities and researchers. This collaboration with NTU is the first of its kind in Asia for Saab. It is a long term research project that will help to broaden Saab’s knowledge base and business network in Asia-Pacific – a key market for Saab in the future”, said Pontus de Laval, Chief Technology Officer of Saab.

The MOU was signed by Prof Lam Khin Yong, NTU’s Acting Provost, Chief of Staff and Vice-President for Research, and Ann-Kristin Adolfsson, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Saab. It was witnessed by NTU President Prof Bertil Andersson, Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of Saab, and Prof Subra Suresh, who will succeed Prof Andersson as NTU’s fourth president on 1 January next year.

A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and its Interdisciplinary Graduate School. Ranked 11th in the world, NTU has also been ranked the world’s top young university for the last four years running.