Posted April 12, 2019
COLUMBIA, S.C., April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of South Carolina opened its Innovation Think Tank (ITT) Lab in downtown Columbia in collaboration with Siemens Healthineers. The space will be an innovation hub where participants including researchers, faculty members, and students can think outside the box to solve issues in healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, and information technology. The ITT Lab at South Carolina is the first Innovation Think Tank Lab affiliated with a U.S. university, as part of Siemens Healthineers' global network of Innovation Think Tank Labs led by adjunct professor Sultan Haider.
"Centers like this are so important because they bring technology and use it to create something new and do things differently," said Elizabeth Regan, the chair of Integrated Information Technology at the College of Engineering and Computing. "That involves opening your mind, moving yourself out of your comfort zone, innovative thinking, and collaborating."
Computer science professor Neset Hikmet, who oversaw the lab's creation, said his vision for the lab is to host workshops with participants from diverse academic backgrounds and to provide them with mentorship and resources to solve pressing issues in healthcare and beyond. "These are all opportunities that have participants getting out of their boundaries, meeting different people, and experiencing different cultures and ways of doing things," Hikmet said.