Hitachi has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) aimed at cooperating in areas of research and development and social innovation.

Examples of potential cooperation identified in the MoU include research and development activities in the fields of autonomous systems, digital twins, material tracking, urban systems, security, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and IoT sensing across primary industries.

Anand Singh, Executive Director and Director of Operations Hitachi Australia, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with CSIRO as we continue to invest our efforts in introducing technologies and systems across Australia that will impact social wellbeing. This partnership will also enable collaborative efforts with a variety of different stakeholders who are in alliance with CSIRO from different industries and academia.”

The MoU was executed by Atsushi Konishi, Managing Director of Hitachi Australia, and Dr Larry Marshall, Chief Executive Officer of CSIRO, on November 19. This coincided with the return of the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum in Sydney. The forum looked into developments around big data analytics, digitalisation, smart cities and automation.