Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), Hitachi have announced that they have entered an agreement for UTP Centre for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research (CISIR) to establish the first Optical Topography-Hub (OT-Hub) located of Japan to drive international joint research related to Optical Topography (OT) with technical support from Hitachi.

The CISIR OT-Hub will serve as the hub for an open innovation network – promoting joint research among universities, hospitals and companies to accelerate research in Applied Brain Science. UTP, Hitachi and HAS will collaborate with partners of the OT-Hub to solve a range of societal challenges related to medicine, education and other areas.

UTP CISIR first introduced OT technology to Malaysia in 2013, through joint research with Hitachi and HAS. OT is a technology developed by Hitachi that enables the noninvasive mapping of brain activity. It offers great potential as key enabling technology to develop solutions based on brain science as OT allows for the real-time measurement of brain function in our daily life.

The application of brain science technology in the fields of medicine, education and industry is expected to contribute to the realization of improved quality of life (QoL) through better healthcare, learning experience and social living. To attain these goals, the development and validation of new solutions, as well as validation through collaboration with research institutes and companies in various fields, are required. The technology and knowledge attained through joint research between UTP and Hitachi will be shared with other collaborators of the OT-Hub, who will then conduct open multi-center studies.

The representatives from UTP, HAS and Hitachi agreed on the CISIR OT-Hub launch at PETRONAS Twin Towers in Malaysia, yesterday.