University-industry
collaboration best practices
in Ericsson Hungary
Csaba Antal, Ph.D.
Head of Technology Unit
Ericsson Hungary R&D
Development Unit Network
Functions & Cloud
Ericsson R&D Hungary
Established in
1996
one of most
important R&D sites in
Ericsson WORLD wide
Complete R&D chain represented in
HUNGARY
Development of
HW and SW products
Innovation
University Cooperation
~ 100 PhD degreeS
~ 1200 employees
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Win3
Innovation
Technology
Industry driven projects
leadership
Strategic thinking
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Strategic university partners
Best Hungarian universities in education and research
in technology and informatics
EÖTVÖS LÓRÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE)
founded in 1635, the largest and the principal university in Hungary
in science, law and humanities, with a strong computer science faculty
Faculty of Science, Institute of Physics
Communication NW Lab
Faculty of Informatics
Software Technology Lab
BUDAPEST UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMICS (BME)
founded in 1782, the most significant university of technology in Hungary
and one of the oldest institutes of technology in the world.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
High Speed Networks Lab
Complex HW Lab
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Mode of operation
Internship
Industry talks
PROJECTS
R&D group active in a field
Definition of projects
Propose projects
Wider community
Vertical teams
Consulting during projects
Open source contribution
Receiver of results
Standard contribution
Integrated in education
& research
Publication
Selection of topics is key
Demoes on public events
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benefits of university
cooperation for Ericsson
Useful technical results: prototypes, algorithms, simulations, open source SW
Build on world-class competence
Recruitment of top talent
Innovation
Industry pre-competitive, pre-standardization harmonization (EU projects)
Branding
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Source Code analysis
› CodeCompass is a tool for reducing maintenance costs of complex
products via visualizing and analyzing C++ , Java and Python code.The
tool is used by >100 designers.
› CodeChecker is a tool to quantify and improve product quality during
design and maintenance via coding rule checking.
– Helps check if coding rules are followed, architectural principles are upheld,
whether anti-patterns are present, whether unsecure code patterns have been
used.
– The tool is used in multiple product development
– CodeChecker was open sourced in 2015. External users include Google,
Apple, Sony and Mozilla.
THESE TOOLS WERE CO-CREATED BY ELTE SOFTWARE
TECHNOLOGY LAB AND ERICSSON
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Model Based Software Engineering
Papyrus Industry consortium
Everybody focused on a common objective
Development of a complete MBE solution
…
DSML
Team
support
Trace &
Debug
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Validation
Model
Checking
Code Gen
Runtime
Testing
Simulation Deployment
PLM
Model based Software
engineering
› Using model driven design and test, we have supported
product development in producing new functionality
› 40-50% saving in design effort
› University and their spin-off companies entered the consortium
developing the open source Papyrus based tool chain
› New innovations / publications from ELTE in textual modeling
area
› We established a formalized system development methodology
in a product development unit
› Textual system modeling innovation: from university cooperation
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Benefits for university
Impact on industry
development
• Focus on mainstream
industry challenges
• Possibility to impact
industry development
via
open source
development,
standardization,
prototypes
• Exploitation and
marketable product
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International exposure
• Open source
• Ericsson’s
international network
• Publications
A new learning
environment
• Vertical teamwork:
Involvement of BSc,
MSc, PhD students
and university
supervisors
• Soft skills:
communication,
language proficiency,
project management
• Possibility to
contribute to world
class development
Motivating for students
• Graduates meet labor
market demands
• Motivation to continue
learning on MSc and
PhD level
• Real tasks
• State-of-the-art
research topics
• Increase “market
value”
Best practices
Industry defined R&D projects
Selection of topics based on industry need, university competence and university interest
Vertical projects with participation of BSc, MSc, PhD students and professors
Primary outcome is working prototype software but there is room for publication
Industrial follow-up of projects to make technology transfer happen
Open source contributions
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