U of M’s FedEx Institute Launches Robotics Research Center

For Release: January 18, 2006 

With contributions of money and human resources from FedEx Corp., the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis is launching a new research center dedicated to the exploration and development of robotic systems with direct implications to everyday life.

This will be the first new research center at the FedEx Institute since its opening in 2003, and will grow to comprise a team of faculty, students and researchers, a consortium of industrial and government sponsors, and a program of academic work, public events, and research that will range from homegrown inventions to pragmatic test bed and real-world trials with FedEx and other partners.

Eric Mathews, associate director for corporate research and development at the Institute, said, “Robots will be hard to ignore in our lives in the near future. The creation of this center is done in guidance with FedEx Corporation, and collectively we would like to take the initiative to make the future of robotics happen faster. That’s why we exist.”

The FedEx Institute of Technology is the South's premier interdisciplinary research laboratory system, where Fortune 500 companies and other businesses pool people, technical resources, and research dollars in a concerted effort to solve modern challenges. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, experiential design, geospatial analysis, multimedia arts, nanotechnology – these fields and others are the focus of the FedEx Institute of Technology, which is dedicated to finding and delivering innovations, and innovators, to the world.

For more information about the FedEx Institute of Technology, call 901-678-5105, or visit the Institute's Web page at http://www.memphis.edu/fedex.