Imperial College London signs £5m campus sponsorship, 5G deal with Chinese comms bogeyman Huawei
- Reference: 1589898616
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/19/imperial_college_huawei/
- Source link:
The tie-up, reportedly worth £5m, will see Huawei's indoor 5G network equipment and "AI cloud platform" installed at the college's West London tech campus, as well sponsorship by the Chinese firm of Imperial's Venture Catalyst entrepreneurship competition.
Huawei is [2]currently under US sanctions as the desperate Western superpower fights a rearguard action to prevent Huawei from dominating its teleco hardware markets. American government policy is to say that Huawei poses a security threat, something the rest of the world hasn't agreed with .
Professor Ian Walmsley, Provost of Imperial College, said in a canned statement: "We work to be at the cutting edge of discoveries and technologies for societal benefit. Our partnership with Huawei has already yielded considerable benefits, and we look forward to expanding this collaboration further."
Back in 2014, Huawei [3]entered a partnership with data scientists from Imperial , which appears to have seeded the ground for a long-running collaboration.
Walmsley's academic colleague, Professor Francisco Veloso, dean of Imperial's Business School, added: "Huawei's expertise in wireless technology will help our researchers, students and partner enterprises to lead the next generation of digital innovations."
The college's latest deal, announced to coincide with a planned academic conference, is unlikely to win it much public support. In April, MPs from the ruling Conservative Party were deeply unimpressed with UK veep Victor Zhang's boasts that Huawei was doing well in spite of "groundless criticism", [4]prompting demands from backbenchers for the government to "stop kowtowing" to China.
Some Western institutions quietly untyed their links with Huawei rather than strengthening them. Oxford University, for example, [5]halted all its Huawei funding in January 2019.
The Mail on Sunday, which first [6]reported the £5m deal, noted there'd been murmurings from unnamed MPs that a promised National Security and Investment Bill was being delayed and watered down so such agreements would continue in future – regardless of official fears about security and effective industrial competition. ®
[1] https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/1262524232048742400
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/18/huawei_guo_ping_us_sanctions_response/
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/12/huawei_opens_french_big_data_plant/
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14/uk_conservative_mps_fume_after_huawei_open_letter/
[5] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/17/oxford_suspends_huawei_funding/
[6] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8326919/Huawei-seals-5m-deal-Imperial-College-help-build-new-tech-campus-London.html
While I am sure Huawei will see some benefits from the deal,so will the UK. Students will have access to important kit for their studies and eventual will go on to be part of British technology.
Getting five million smackeroonies from the UK gov' for research is like winning the lottery (never happens for most people) so Uni's have to go where the money is.
Anyone else reminded of John Hammond
And a certain elephant?
The British government is stuffed full of people who'd even get sacked from British Leyland - not so much flat caps as flat skulls. The Chinee own everything else and they will until we stop them.
Oxford uni is essentially broke, Cambridge is essentially bordering on bankrupt and students there are being harassed by the US military - dangling money with the unspoken (until you've signed) rider that you are US MILITARY property.
The UK government is a bad joke practically everywhere in every field so where else are research organisations going to look?
Stop funding crap we can't afford and will never use *cough* nuclear deterrent *uncough* and start funding stuff we need like research and proper support for those who need it.
Re: Anyone else reminded of John Hammond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_universities_by_endowment
I don't think either part of Oxbridge is essentially bordering on bankrupt.
All those figures are going to be hammered, but there's still money in the University sector.
State Interference
I suppose it give them the potential to blame state interference if their numbers turn out to be wildly inaccurate ...?