Cisco Systems is making two new investments in Ontario’s Kitchener-Waterloo area.
The company officially opened the new Cisco Incubation Centre on Thursday morning. It will be part of the David Johnston Research and Technology Park at the University of Waterloo (UW), as reported in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record.
The incubation facility will give students access to Cisco’s collaboration technology, expertise and worldwide partner system, the company said in a statement. The centre will be linked to similar research parks around the world.
It’s part of Cisco’s move to strengthen its ties with Canadian universities and innovation parks. It has similar relationships with the University of Winnipeg, the University of New Brunswick and the Vancouver Island Technology Park.
Cisco also said Thursday it will invest $1 million over the next five years to create a research chair position at UW focused on new smart grid technologies. The inaugural chair will be held by UW computer science professor Srinivasan Keshav, who is also a Canada Research Chair in tetherless computing.