HPQ: HP Expands R&D Presence in Growing Economies with Establishment of HP Labs Russia

Extending its strategy of establishing research centers in growing economies, HP today announced it will open a lab in St. Petersburg, Russia, to pursue advanced information management technologies.

HP Labs Russia will be the third facility that the company has opened in the past five years. HP Labs China began operations in Beijing in 2005 and HP Labs India opened in Bangalore in 2002. HP Labs, the company’s central research organization, also has facilities in Bristol, U.K.; Haifa, Israel; and Tokyo. Its headquarters site is in Palo Alto.

“A globally distributed R&D network allows HP to access research talent anywhere and collaborate around the world to create new technologies for our customers,” said Shane Robison, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer, HP. “Russia’s high growth and depth of technology talent make it an exciting location to expand HP’s global research capabilities.”

The lab will work on new methods for extracting, analyzing and organizing useful information from the vast explosion of data created by the World Wide Web and other sources. According to some estimates, the amount of data in the world is growing up to 50 percent a year.

Initially, the new lab will be co-located in HP’s branch in St. Petersburg. It will report to Beth Keer, director of the Information Services and Process Innovation Lab in HP Labs, who also will be acting director while conducting a search for a full-time director and research staff.

The new lab is the latest investment by HP in Russia’s booming economy. In the past year, HP has launched a number of important initiatives in the country, including establishing the first external HP next-generation data center at the prestigious Kurchatov Institute to conduct research into future utility computing systems.

“The opening of HP Labs Russia is a recognition of the country’s success in science and technology research,” said Academician Eugeny Velikhov, president, Kurchatov Institute. “HP’s involvement with Russian R&D organizations will not only benefit the economy, but our overall scientific and technological development as well.”

Continuing HP Labs’ emphasis on collaboration, the St. Petersburg-based scientists will conduct joint research on information management technology with their colleagues in Palo Alto, Bristol and Beijing. They also will collaborate with computer scientists and engineers in HP business units around the world. In addition, joint research projects are expected to be established with Russian universities and research institutes.

Keer is actively seeking a director and staff for the lab to create technologies aimed at finding useful information in massive amounts of structured and unstructured data – technologies that go far beyond the capabilities of traditional data mining and business intelligence.

The director is expected to lead research efforts that will result in significant contributions in the next few years. Staff skill requirements include computer science, informatics and related disciplines, such as mathematics, optimization, information theory, statistics and economics.

“HP has been in Russia for four decades,” said Owen Kemp, vice president and managing director, HP Russia. “We have close relationships with government and universities and we are the No. 1 IT vendor in the country. It’s important for HP to be part of Russia’s growing economy and we believe there are special talents here that can help improve access to relevant information, which is what organizations want the most from their IT systems.”