North Jutland technology venture in struggling Japan · 27. September 2010
Danish expertise in satellites, wireless communications and digital audio may be headed for wider dissemination through collaboration with Japanese partners. The foundation was laid in Tokyo during a recently completed innovation venture involving three North Jutland technology companies and Aalborg University's Center for TeleInFrastruktur (CTIF).
The Tokyo trip’s packed program of company visits, workshops and individual business meetings also involved over twenty Japanese representatives. The Japanese participants came from both industry and research, and this made for a perfect target audience for Lars Alminde, Managing Director of the entrepreneurial firm GomSpace in Aalborg:
- Our purpose in taking part was to meet with universities and companies who like us are working with small satellites. It’s a field where both Denmark and Japan are pioneering nations, and the meetings provided a good opportunity to discuss experiences as well as opportunities for closer collaboration in the future. We will follow up concretely with further meetings in Europe this fall, says Lars Alminde.
His own story was presented in the Tokyo meetings as a textbook example of the innovative and practical skills that Aalborg University’s teaching methods try to cultivate. Along with a group of fellow students, Lars Alminde stood behind the 2003 launch of the first European cube satellite. The experience from that and later launches during his time at the university became the basis for the establishment in 2007 of GomSpace, specializing in electronics and software development for the emerging market for very small satellites. The company has deliberately gone to great lengths to preserve the close relationship to the University.
- We are already working specifically with the University's Centre for TeleInFrastruktur on two strategic development projects that focus on doing business based on research findings. So the workshop in Japan was a good opportunity to further strengthen relations, says Lars Alminde.
