Siemens Corporate Technology
Siemens, headquartered in Berlin and Munich, is one of the world’s largest electrical engineering and electronics companies. In fiscal year 2005 (which ended September 30), the company had roughly 461,000 employees and posted sales of €75.445 billion from continuing operations. With activities in more than 190 countries and some 600 plants, research facilities and sales offices worldwide, Siemens has a strong international presence. Company businesses are focused on six key areas: Information and Communications, Automation and Control, Power, Transportation, Medical and Lighting. In addition, Siemens is also a partner in joint ventures – with Bosch in the household appliances sector (BSH Bosch-Siemens Household devices) and with Fujitsu in computer systems (Fujitsu Siemens Computers). Siemens continues to concentrate on expanding the range of services, solutions and systems that complement its product portfolio. Most of Siemens’ approximately 47,000 researchers and developers are working on software projects, making the company one of the world’s largest software houses.
The Corporate Technology (CT) department with more than 1,800 employees worldwide plays a special role in the area of research and development within Siemens. CT works as a network of competencies and partner for innovation and works very closely with the business units. The “Ambient Intelligence Technologies” group participating in the EMERGE project belongs to the technology department ”Information & Communications” and is specialised in the area of short range connectivity technologies (e.g., Bluetooth, WLAN, RFID, NFC, ZigBee), mobile and distributed service oriented middleware (e.g., UPnP, OSGi, JXTA, Web Services) as well as intelligent services and assistance (e.g., agent technology, coordination technologies, synchronisation protocols, planning and scheduling, learning mechanisms, rule engines, context modeling and reasoning). The group also has a very close relationship to the robotics group. Within the project, the group will draw upon knowledge, skills and resources from selected Siemens business units wherever it is necessary and appropriate. In particular, there will be possible collaboration with Siemens Medical Systems (MED), Siemens Information and Communication (COM), Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D), Siemens Building Technologies (SBT), and Bosch Siemens Household Devices (BSH).
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