Campus expansion and innovation

The 2024 version of the biannual High Tech Next event on 20 November was about unveiling the general plan for expanding and updating High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTCE) through the next decade.

 Paul van Son, HTCE head of strategy, announced the Campus is expanding again with two new tech buildings – one on the north side of Campus, one on the south – to be built in parallel starting in mid-2025. Companies can use them for whatever they need, including labs and clean rooms, van Son said.

Expansion details:

• Van Son said on the south side of Campus, there are 100,000 square meters to be developed over the next few years. The plan is to, at the same time, transform the landscape into “a more forest-like environment.” And, he added, “the sheep will stay.” (The Campus is famous for using sheep rather than machinery for summer grass trimming.)
• The Campus will soon add two new buildings – roughly 17,500 meters2 in total, or about 188,000 square feet. These spec buildings are in anticipation of demand for high-quality space for R&D operations in the Brainport region.
• Over 10 years, the Campus will build more technical facilities and adjoining office space.
• The Strip will get more outdoor workout space, including a cross-fit and more sports facilities.
• HTC 11 will be dedicated to test materials with Smart BioMaterials Consortium’s pilot factory of four cleanrooms, a total of 400 square meters. According to their website, the pilot factory will become the first shared-use production facility for biomaterials for regenerative medicine in Europe. The opening is scheduled for the spring of 2025.

HTC 91, or Lucis One, debuted with a party on the 10th floor of what is now the tallest building on Campus. The glass and steel high-rise already has a number of tenants, including Molex, Infoland, V.O. Patents and Trademarks.

All this is about positioning HTCE for future demand. “We have listened carefully to the needs of companies on Campus and beyond,” says Otto van den Boogaard, CEO of High Tech Campus Eindhoven. “That's why we take the responsibility to invest in the Campus, so that companies that commit to the Brainport region are optimally facilitated in their growth.”

The future of technology: a futurist's perspective

The keynote presentation was by futurist Christian Kromme, author of “Humanification: Go Digital, Stay Human.” Kromme used a biology/tech analogy that the evolution of humans a roadmap to the future of tech. Humans started as simple clusters of cells that evolved over a million years into complex systems, controlled by a brain – “basically the AI in the cloud of our body” – that takes in and processes information, he said. A child starts learning to recognize colors, patterns and sounds until it grows into an autonomous adult. “Well, AI is moving through the same stages but much, much, much faster,” according to Kromme. It’s a future of quickly evolving AI-enhanced technology designing, diagnosing, driving and nearly every other task humans do today.

Kromme said the phases of human evolution from cells to homo sapiens is illustrative of how technology is advancing in waves. He asserts that we’re in the sixth wave, but a coming seventh AI wave will disrupt how we work, with robots that can learn taking over many tasks from humans. “Now we move from our world that’s all about hardware, physical essence, expensive stuff, towards the world which is all about algorithms and software.”

We are just at the beginning of this revolution. “So, imagine what this can be three, four or five years from now,” he said. “I think it will be mind boggling, what’s possible.”

Panel discussion: industry insights

The day-long High Tech NEXT also included a panel, “What’s Next,” with Clara Otero Perez from NXP, Derya Eker from Synopsys and Ton van Mol from Holst Centre. The discussion focused on how each company is how AI is both testing the existing semiconductor industry and helping researchers shape what’s coming.

Van Mol said when Holst Centre started in 2006, scientists and engineers were focused on technology “now found in all our phones,” including wireless communications chips. “Of course, that makes us proud.” That was done by sharing innovation with the entire industry. In recent years, they’ve exported that approach to other industries.

In the past six years, Holst Centre has been active in spinning out innovative companies such as LionVolt, which makes next-gen solid state batteries for electric vehicles and is also located at HTCE, van Mol noted. With the aging population, Holst Centre is active in wearable technologies for diagnosis as well as photonic chips, “the backbone of all data.”

In 2024, “AI is shaping everything,” said Eker. AI requires more transistors on chips, and that requires advanced semiconductor tools. She calls Synopsys, which focuses on chip design, “the catalyst of the impossible.”

NXP is working on the software-defined electric vehicle, Perez said. “We try to make the car very programmable … it’s learning about you with all the sensors. It’s learning about how you use the car.”

A vibrant innovation ecosystem

The Conference Center hosted displays and presentations by 27 Campus companies, including SMART Photonics and recent arrival E Ink Technologies, based in Taiwan, with more than 200 people trekking out in a surprise snowstorm to attend High Tech NEXT.

Campus companies with demos:

Touch Biometrix

alphabeats

E Ink Technologies

3EALITY/Al Innovation Center at HTCE

SMART Photonics

VRinSCHOOL

inPhocal

Airvision/Datacation

Vention Technologies

Workplace Vitality Hub (at HTCE)

PhotonDelta

Plasmacure

Usono

Typeware

Brabetech

Zens

NXP

byFlow

Holland Innovative

TMC

Philips

Enliven

TNO

TNO (Thin Films)

imec

Web3 Vision

Innovation Origins

High Tech NEXT 2024 wrapped with drinks and networking at the newly opened Lucis One (HTC 91) on the south side of Campus. The view of Campus from the 10^th floor was fabulous, following a short snowfall earlier in the day.

See all High Tech NEXT 2024 photos HERE: