Telefónica and the University of Castilla-La Mancha have extended the chair that both entities held at the Ciudad Real campus to the Cuenca campus and will focus on 5G and mobile telephony research.
This was explained this Tuesday by both the rector of the regional university, Julián Garde, as well as the director of the UCLM-Telefónica Chair, Miguel Ángel Redondo, and the general director of the Central Territory of Telefónica, Beatriz Herranz, who have inaugurated the new space of the chair that has been installed in the Institute of Technology, Construction and Telecommunications of the Cuenca campus.
In this way, Telefónica has given the university various technological equipment from the company, such as several 5G antennas, 4G antennas and mobile antennas, as well as frequency analyzers and meters, in order to develop technological innovation projects in mobile telephony and entrepreneurship in 5G systems.
The new laboratory will serve to provide the necessary infrastructure to the UCLM-Telefónica Chair and the Applied Electromagnetism and Signal Processing (GEA) group to research and develop prototypes and systems that improve mobile communications processes in which new applications are used. and emerging devices, such as watches and smartphones, virtual reality devices or augmented reality applications, among other lines of research; as well as the application of artificial intelligence technologies. These new techniques for optimization and applicability of mobile networks could be transferred to Telefónica in the form of knowledge or technology.
In addition, the infrastructure will serve as a connector between the Applied Electromagnetism and Signal Processing group, located at the Cuenca Campus, and the Computer Human Interaction and Collaboration (CHICO) group, based at the Ciudad Real and Almadén Mining and Industrial Engineering, until now the main core of the UCLM-Telefónica Chair.
The synergies and increased activity that the creation of the Telefónica I D i Chair Laboratory will entail, on the other hand, will contribute to promoting the development of research, development and innovation projects and favoring the transfer of technology to companies in this field and to society , promoting the technology sector in Castilla-La Mancha.
It will also carry out outreach, training and information activities, among others. For the start-up of the laboratory, Telefónica will donate to the UCLM a mobile telephone base station with its corresponding antennas, as well as a mobile communications signal repeater, which will allow studies to be carried out on the transmission of the telephone signal and the development of new mobile communications applications.
The rector has conveyed his gratitude to Telefónica and to the professors and researchers involved in the project, and has stressed that the university-business chairs constitute a model of public-private collaboration of a strategic nature for the academic institution.
«A year ago, the University of Castilla-La Mancha had five university-company chairs; Currently, we have thirteen active and three in the process of being established”, explained Julián Garde, who recalled that these cooperation figures “serve to carry out research, development, innovation and transfer; but also as a training tool for students: it undoubtedly positions them in a more competitive plane in the labor market».
In addition, this chair at Telefónica is one of the “strategic” ones maintained by the university, which is why Garde has shown its willingness to continue renewing it year after year.
Along the same lines, Beatriz Arranz has insisted that this collaboration aims to favor the university-business relationship. “In such a learning environment, companies and the university must step up their efforts and cooperate to enhance the university experience complemented by the business space,” she explained.
Thus, he added that “from the Telefónica chairs the university talent of young people is promoted, who are the ones who have to lead a new digital era”. “Having university talent and creativity, as well as sharing university and business dynamics, allows progress towards new relationship models that enable greater development and knowledge transfer that allows students to access multidisciplinary spaces”, it is finished.
In addition, he has insisted that these chairs are a basis for later incorporating young talent into the Telefónica group, and that as a result of these chairs, students can opt for both the talentum internship program, which will be operational for the whole year.
With 24 chairs in 26 leading Spanish universities, Telefónica now has the largest network of University-business Chairs in our country, a network that, since its creation in 2001, has served as a tool for training, research and knowledge transfer with one objective common: the promotion of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in our society.
