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4 min read
Published on 12/15/2020
Last updated on 02/05/2024
Cisco funds innovative research to address technology challenges of the pandemic
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We are experiencing a once-in-a-century global pandemic, which has had a profound impact on all of humankind. Even people who have not been infected have seen unprecedented disruptions to their everyday lives, with overburdened health systems, business shutdowns leading to job losses, and food shortages, among others. This pandemic is a clear wake-up call, reminding us to be better prepared as a society to deal with these challenges.
Connecting researchers and developers
Earlier this year, at Cisco Research, we wanted to step up to the challenge of pandemic preparedness by soliciting research proposals that address both the science and technology aspects of problems around detection, mitigation, and analysis of COVID-19. Cisco Research is part of the Emerging Technologies & Incubation (ET&I) group at Cisco, and has had a long tradition of connecting researchers and developers from Cisco, academia, governments, customers, and industry partners. Our goal is facilitating collaboration and exploration of new and promising technologies with strong societal, technological, and business impact.Saving lives
When it comes to COVID-19, on the technology front, there is an incredibly wide range of opportunities for mitigating the impact of the disease, from predictive analytics, to innovative life-saving devices, to rapid disease-detecting technology. The potential social and economic impacts are huge and some of the work can be transformative and save lives.US$1 million in research funds awarded
We posted our request for proposal (RFP) in June 2020, generating the largest number of proposals we have ever received, with a wide range of ideas to solve this crisis. Out of these submissions, we selected 14 proposals and awarded a total of US$1 million in research funds to various universities and nonprofits around the world. As principal engineer and RFP co-author Amit Kumar Saha from Cisco Bangalore notes, “We were truly humbled by the response we got. We are delighted to announce that we funded a number of very exciting research proposals, most of them focusing on topics for expediting a cure or understanding the socio-economic impact of this pandemic. Collectively, these proposals give us hope that the world will come out of this stronger and better.”Research topics
The selected proposals target research in a wide range of technology areas, including:- Near infrared nano-sensors for rapid detection of positive cases
- Expanding use of video technology to improve mid-level health care providers’ infection control management in rural/urban health care settings
- Enhanced signal recognition for amplification-free detection of COVID-19 infection
- Analyzing the socio-economic aspects of COVID-19 in the developing world
- Novel methods for testing, prediction, and intervention of COVID-19
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