Oracle is expanding its Chicago Innovation Lab, which would allow more organizations to explore new technologies and strategies to bolster their digital transformation efforts, the firm said in a release.
Since its launch last year, the Lab has helped construction organizations explore and test solutions from Oracle and the larger construction ecosystem in a simulated worksite environment.
Oracle is now planning for an extended facility and broadening the scope of the newly named Oracle Industries Innovation Lab to feature additional partners and technologies to solve complex business issues and accelerate customer success across more verticals.
“We are at an inflection point with technology as the digital and physical worlds continue to blur for our customers across all industries,” said Mike Sicilia, senior vice president and general manager, Global Business Units, Oracle. “This expanded Lab environment gives our customers and partners a place to co-innovate with tools and technologies that yield operational improvements and empowers them to use data to create new business opportunities and revenue streams. We’re coming together to help redefine the future for these industries.”
Oracle’s Lab has already welcomed more than 650 visitors, including technology partners, customers and industry leaders. At the Chicago facility, they have worked together in a realistic worksite environment to test how solutions such as connected devices, autonomous vehicles, drones, augmented reality, visualization, and artificial intelligence tools can positively impact the construction industry. Moving forward, the Lab will also feature simulated environments including Utility and Communication solutions, the U.S. company said.
Oracle Utilities will explore new concepts driving the future of energy. Lab demonstrations and real-world modeling will range from better managing loads on the grid with distributed energy resources, such as solar, wind and electric vehicles; to using artificial intelligence, IoT and digital-twin technologies to improve network operations and speed outage restoration; to optimizing connections with smart home devices to engage and serve customers, while bolstering the health of the grid with better demand planning. The Lab will also highlight how water, gas and electric utilities can leverage the latest technology to manage and enhance their construction efforts and minimize disruptions during site enhancements, maintenance and upgrades.
The use cases being demonstrated at the Lab will let customers simulate real-time collaboration on large construction models with massive amounts of data over a high speed, low latency 5G network, Oracle added.
