IBM opens Watson Internet of Things global HQ in Munich to drive cognitive computing research

Watson IoT will 'generate new insights to benefit business and society alike', claims IBM's Harriet Green

IBM has opened a brand new global headquarters for Watson Internet of Things (IoT) in Munich, Germany in an effort to drive the innovation and development of connected devices and cognitive computing.

Cognitive computing software uses natural language processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence to collect and analyse unstructured data and help users make better informed decisions.

The Munich campus at HighLight Towers represents IBM's first European Watson innovation centre. IoT offerings developed at the site will be made available to businesses and developers through the company's IBM Watson IoT Cloud.

The opening of the campus comes after IBM announced plans to extend its Watson platform to offer developers a new set of cognitive APIs, technologies and artificial intelligence tools through the Watson Developer Cloud.

In total, 1,000 IBM developers, consultants, researchers and designers will be based at the Munich Watson IoT campus. It will also serve as an innovation lab for data scientists, engineers and programmers tasked with building the connected devices that can harness the power of cognitive computing and the IoT.

The new IBM campus will also be used to deliver Watson APIs and services on the Watson IoT Cloud platform in an effort to further accelerate the growth of cognitive computing and the IoT "in a physical world that is rapidly becoming digitised".

IBM customers in sectors ranging from automotive, electronics, healthcare, insurance and industrial manufacturers will have direct access to the open, cloud-based platform to develop and create the next generation of cognitive IoT apps, something that IBM has dubbed "Industry 4.0 innovation".

One customer that has already partnered with IBM in an effort to benefit from the Watston IoT campus is Siemens Building Technologies, which plans "to bring innovation to the digitalisation of buildings".

"By bringing asset management and analytics together with a deep technical understanding of how buildings perform, Siemens will make customers' building operations more reliable, cost-optimised and sustainable," said CEO Matthias Rebellius.

"We are excited to stretch the envelope of what is possible in optimising building performance by combining the asset management and database technologies from IBM's Watson IoT business unit with our market-leading building automation domain know-how," he added.

Industry watchers predict that the data produced by IoT and connected devices will rise rapidly in the coming years. By opening the Munich Watson IoT facility IBM no doubt aims to play a role in helping businesses and wider society adapt to the data-connected world.

"The Internet of Things will soon be the largest single source of data on the planet, yet almost 90 percent of that data is never acted upon," said Harriet Green, general manager, Watson IoT and Education.

"With its unique abilities to sense, reason and learn, Watson opens the door for enterprises, governments and individuals to finally harness this real-time data, compare it with historical data sets and deep reservoirs of accumulated knowledge, and then find unexpected correlations that generate new insights to benefit business and society alike," she added.

US customer the University of Michigan has already harnessed the power of IBM cognitive computing in its bid to win the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, an 1,800-mile race across the Australian Outback involving solar-powered cars.

Computing's inaugural Internet of Things Business Summit is set to take place in May 2016 and is free to attend for end users. Register here.