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MIT, Munich Airport to develop LabCampus Innovation Center

Munich Airport and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Senseable City Lab have signed a cooperation agreement to work together in the development of the LabCampus Innovation Center at the airport.
MIT, Munich Airport to develop LabCampus Innovation Center

Plans to launch the LabCampus future project – an innovation lab on the airport campus that will promote cooperation between companies and across industry boundaries – were announced by Munich Airport in March of this year. As of November, the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is on board to provide conceptual support for the establishment and development of the new innovation campus.

Building an ideal urban environment

Under an initial three-year cooperation agreement, the MIT Senseable City Lab, based in Cambridge, MA, will act as a research partner, supporting the team in Munich as it turns the campus into an innovative smart city. The goal is to build an ideal urban environment offering optimal conditions for people and companies to work together efficiently, creatively and, above all, under one roof. This will provide a setting to design and develop products and services for the world of the future and to test them onsite. To make this a reality, LabCampus GmbH will work with MIT to establish a future-ready infrastructure right from the start, focusing on state-of-the-art technologies in the areas of energy, mobility and urban planning, as well as the connectivity between them for optimal sustainability and livability for the users.

"This cooperation is a major milestone for our innovation site," says Dr Marc Wagener, MD of LabCampus GmbH. "We will be working with MIT researchers to study and evaluate the most important trends and digital technologies that can benefit us in the development and successful implementation of a smart city concept."

MIT, Munich Airport to develop LabCampus Innovation Center

Professor Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, is also delighted: "This is an excellent opportunity for us to be involved in creating a smart city from the earliest stages. It gives us a chance to look ahead and weave everything, including future needs, into the infrastructure from the very beginning."

MIT Senseable City Lab is the first global player outside of Europe to sign a cooperation agreement with LabCampus GmbH. Research institutions that have signed on as innovation partners include FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Hasso Plattner Institute, as well as the Fraunhofer Institute, which is also exploring the possibility of renting space at LabCampus.

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