In an effort to “advance research in the areas of connected and autonomous vehicle technology,” the University of Waterloo is partnering with the Qingdao Academy of Intelligent Industries (QAII), and the State Key Laboratory for Management and Control of Complex Systems (SKL-MCCS), both of which are institutes in China.

The entities recently signed an agreement to solidify the partnership.

The agreement outlines several initiatives, including faculty and graduate student exchanges, a Waterloo PhD program focused on autonomous vehicles, and the establishment of a shared research center for automated driving.

The center’s research activities will include automated vehicle testing, human-like autonomous driving, applied artificial intelligence and deep learning in automated driving.

“Waterloo is committed to taking a global view on research and development and this partnership represents a significant step in our goal of advancing the world’s understanding and use of new technologies,” says Feridun, Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor at Waterloo.

“Our dedication to innovation and these types of partnerships will help us to continue to shape the future of Canada and the world’s technologies and economy.”

All institutions will pursue funding from other outside sources. It is also expected that several university-industry partnerships will be developed based on this joint research platform.

To initiate collaborative activities, the Chinese partners will collectively provide up to $1M Canadian dollars (CDN) per year for five years. Waterloo has committed to providing $4M CDN to build a new autonomous lab facility in 2018, and is looking for additional government matching funds to support this initiative.

“I am confident our joint effort will make Waterloo, QAII, and SKL-MCCS the leader and best in research and development of artificial intelligence and intelligent technology for autonomous driving,” says Fei-Yue Wang, president of QAII and director of SKL-MCCS.

“I also hope our joint effort will lead to the world's first PhD program specializing in intelligent vehicles and make Waterloo the hub of innovation and incubation in intelligent vehicles and technology.”