Samsung R&D Institute – Bangalore Bags Zinnov ‘Great Place to Innovate’ Award for the Third Time

Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B) was recognized as a ‘Great Place to Innovate’ for the third straight time at the prestigious Zinnov Awards 2020. The awards recognize and celebrate the stalwarts of technology world and honour Indian R&D centres that have created an impact on a global scale.

The award has recognised SRI-B for excellence in multiple focus areas, and for establishing itself as the ‘Innovation Hub’ in emerging technologies. SRI-B’s in-house innovation culture with focus on patent creation has enabled R&D engineers at the centre to build impactful solutions around Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Vision & Camera and 5G. University collaboration and start-up engagement has enabled SRI-B to bring together open innovation and in-house innovation.

“Our innovation is deep-rooted in technology. We nurture it in our day-to-day activities where innovators, the strongest anchor of this organization, are encouraged to have a ‘Research-to-Market’ mindset. Our ‘Make for India’ efforts, coupled with excellence in AI, IoT, 5G and Multimedia, are aimed at creating solutions for Indian and global consumers,” said Dr Aloknath De, CTO, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore.

This year, Zinnov Awards received more than 350 nominations from over 150 companies across eight different categories. A total of 28 winners were selected by 45 eminent jurors.

SRI-B has won the Zinnov Awards in the “Great Place to Innovate” category in 2015 and 2017. The winners this year were selected by a jury comprising eminent members from various India R&D centres, CTOs, industry influencers and previous award winners. SRI-B had also won the Zinnov Awards for ‘Design Thinking’ in 2015 and ‘Center of Excellence’ in 2016 and Zinnov “Open Innovators Award” last year.

SRI-B focuses on technologies around Communication Protocols, Multimedia (including Camera Solutions), Intelligence, Payment, Web Services, Memory, Network and IoT. The R&D centre’s key focus is to create global product differentiation and solutions for the Indian market by identifying unique insights and deliver value to consumers. SRI-B has expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and networks including 5G. It has also filed over 2,900 patents in India so far.

As part of Samsung’s ‘Make for India’ initiative, SRI-B has worked on several India-specific innovations that are based on consumer insights.

Over the years, the centre has engaged with multiple universities and educational institutes such as Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IISc), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) IIT- Kharagpur and IIT-Kanpur for research collaborations on areas such as artificial intelligence and its applications to multimedia and vision tech, IoT, sensors and networks.

It recently launched a unique industry-academia program – Samsung PRISM (Preparing and Inspiring Student Minds) – to stimulate the Indian innovation ecosystem, and build capabilities among students that meet industry needs.