TCS, SMU extend tie-up for intelligent city research

It will include developing technology solutions specifically tailored to the needs of senior citizens in Singapore under a research grant secured from the Govt of Singapore

India's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services today said it has extended by three years its partnership with Singapore Management University for research on 'intelligent city'.

The SMU-TCS iCity Lab, a Singapore Management University (SMU) and TCS joint venture, is focused on R&D of intelligent city solutions.

SMU and TCS have agreed to continue the partnership for another three years to undertake a number of research initiatives and projects, TCS said in a statement.

These will include developing technology solutions specifically tailored to the needs of senior citizens in Singapore under a research grant secured from the Government of Singapore last week for the SHINESeniors Project, it added.

The iCity Lab was established in August 2011 within the SMU School of Information Systems as a three-year research collaboration, whereby SMU and TCS would work together on research related to intelligent cities.

TCS said the Lab, over the last three years, has done several projects across the intelligent city domain, including a deep focus on ageing and chronic disease management, as well as personalised community healthcare services, TCS said.

"This research will lead to the development of an end-to-end personalised care delivery platform from sense making to emergency response services," TCS President Asia Pacific Vish Iyer said.

Under the SHINESeniors (Smart Homes and Intelligent Neighbours to Enable Seniors) project, sensor-enabled homes will be developed in support of ageing-in-place for senior citizens living in Singapore.

SMU-TCS iCity Lab will work with multiple stakeholders, including several government agencies and community partners, to implement the project over three years.

Singapore faces major challenges in providing care and support for senior citizens due to the fact that the number of post-retirement people aged 65 and older is increasing faster than that of the working population age of 20 to 64, SMU Dean of School of Information Systems and Vice Provost (Research) Steven Miller said.

"This is the core challenge we are now concentrating on at the iCity Lab. We conceptualised and designed the SHINESeniors Project to help Singapore tackle some of the challenges relating to this situation," he added.

The iCity Lab will work with SMU's Living Analytics Research Centre (LARC) for data analytics support. In addition, SMU's School of Social Sciences will also contribute to the SHINESeniors project.