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Innovation Think Tank Lab open at USC

Staff Report //April 3, 2019//

Innovation Think Tank Lab open at USC

Staff Report //April 3, 2019//

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The University of South Carolina’s Innovation Think Tank Lab, a collaboration with Siemens, is now open.

The lab, which joins Siemens Healthineers’ global network, provides a space for researchers, faculty members and students to investigate issues in fields including health care, artificial intelligence and information technology, according to a news release. The lab, located in the first floor of the Tower Building at 1301 Gervais St., is led by adjunct professor Sultan Haider.

“Centers like this are so important because they bring technology and use it to create something new and do things differently,” Elizabeth Regan, chair of integrated information technology at USC’s College of Engineering and Computing, said in the release. “That involves opening your mind, moving yourself out of your comfort zone, innovative thinking and collaborating.”

Computer science professor Neset Hikmet, who oversaw the lab’s creation, said his vision for the lab includes workshops with participants from diverse academic backgrounds working with mentors to address pressing issue.

“These are all opportunities that have participants getting out of their boundaries, meeting different people and experiencing different cultures and ways of doing things,” Hikmet said.

In June 2017, Siemens and USC announced a $628 million in-kind grant of Siemens hardware and software. Through the Healthineers initiative, participants at the USC lab will be able to share knowledge with other labs throughout the U.S. and in the United Kingdom, Germany, China, India and Turkey.

In conjunction with the opening of the USC lab, 20 participants from academic institutions including South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Florida and Benedict took part in a two-day interdisciplinary health care innovation workshop.  The collaboration produced ideas including a stroke detection app, an implant to hold patients’ medical history and a pill to treat obesity.

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