IBM Haifa Research Lab

Yesterday in Tel Aviv University, IBM Haifa Research Lab presented an introduction to their work [talk announcement]. IBM is the last of the behemoth's with a fully dedicated research lab. Gone are the days of pure research for the sake of "good for humanity and the world". Xerox research labs in Palo Alto California brought us windows, the mouse, laser printers and Ethernet networking. AT&T research labs in New Jersey brought us the transistor, Unix and the big bang. IBM brought us DRAMS, Hard Disk Drives, databases and sophisticated CAD for IC design. So what is so special about IBM research lab? specially in 2009? It is probably smaller and more practical in it's research projects. The talk covered six very different topics from AIDS gene database for determining therapy effectiveness all the way to cloud computing.
IBM has kept the research labs around the world going by directing them to more practical research in areas where IBM can develop a business. Researchers sometimes do not know where their work is going to end up. From past experience, it also seems that the researchers and the companies funding the work are not the biggest beneficiaries from the work. IBM seems to think that there is a way to change this. There are many areas in IT and computing where IBM's past leadership can direct future work. There are also new directions which IBM can use it's unique position in developing large systems and collaborating on a global scale.
Israel is one of the centers for technology research and development. Companies like IBM, Intel, Microsoft are aware of the high caliber technologist coming from Universities in Israel. While Israel is a small country in comparison to India, China and the US, there are still good number of people to tap for innovation and research. Like other business efforts in technology, research is not a sure thing. You have to take a chance, make and effort and hope that the work will yield something good - IBM thinks this is a worth while effort and they are doing it again and longer than others. If you are interested in the Haifa seminars, take a look at their web site and keep track of upcoming talks.