Volkswagen is partnering with the University of Tennessee and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to create the company's first innovation hub for developing new technology in North America, officials said Friday in a statement.

Initial work at the hub in Knoxville will include research opportunities for UT doctoral students and will focus on electric vehicles and developing lighter components from composite materials, according to a joint statement from the three partners.

"Working with the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a great opportunity to continue growing Volkswagen's engineering footprint in the North American region," said Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner, VW's executive vice president and chief engineering officer for the region. "This hub, along with other research institutions here, is an integral part of Volkswagen's global research and development efforts and can also directly contribute to vehicles in North America."

Volkswagen has partnered with the University of Tennessee since opening its Chattanooga Assembly plant in 2011. The plant assembles the Volkswagen Passat sedan and Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs. The company broke ground in the fall on a new electric vehicle production facility in Tennessee.

 Oak Ridge National Lab Director Thomas Zacharia said the collaboration benefits science and industry.

"By identifying difficult challenges and pursuing creative solutions with immediate industrial application, we can accelerate fields such as materials science, energy storage and advanced manufacturing while making vehicles better, safer and more fuel efficient," Zacharia said.

VW also has innovation hubs in Barcelona, Spain; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Tokyo, Japan.

Chinese scientists have developed an octopus-inspired soft robot with the capabilities of shrinking, environment-adaptive camouflage and multimodal locomotion.

Bionic robots inspired by the way creatures interact with the environment have become an emerging topic. Scientists from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences got the inspiration from octopuses and made the robot that can adjust its size during locomotion.

The robot possesses outstanding obstacle-crossing abilities including crawling within a two-mm-high tunnel and swimming through a 450-micrometer-wide channel, said Du Xuemin, the leading researcher.

The soft robot can even move through a narrow tube smaller than its own size by shrinking its body to 35 percent of its original size via near-infrared light irradiation.

Due to the high transparency of the hydrogel in its tail, the robot has the environment-adaptive ability of camouflage in water. It can also interact with changing temperatures via its color-shifting appearance, said Du.

With the bionic design and smart locomotion of the soft robot, it is expected to benefit various fields including biomedicine and environmental monitoring.

The research result has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Chinese technology and smartphone giant Huawei on Thursday launched the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G, a new-generation 5G smartphone, in Kuwait.

A large crowd of consumers and fans attended the launching ceremony held at a Huawei store inside the Avenues Mall in the Farwaniya Governorate, the largest shopping mall in Kuwait.

At the ceremony, Muhammad Awais Sheikh, marketing director of Huawei Consumer Business Group in Kuwait, said that HUAWEI Mate30 Pro 5G is the first dual mode phone with a Kirin 990 5G chipset.

Moreover, consumers can experience videography like never before with the world's first 40MP super-sensing cine camera, he said, adding that the smartphone has a 4500 mAh battery that can last up to two days of usage.

The Kuwaitis were amazed by the performance of the new Huawei smartphone and the effectiveness of its camera.

Maha Al-Saeed, a well-known Kuwaiti blogger, described the phone as wonderful. "The specifications are excellent and the performance is great," she said.

Al-Saeed expressed admiration for the accuracy of the camera and the effectiveness of the battery.

"Huawei is also characterized by the efficiency of the charger and its speed," she added.

As for Rana Kafran, a local resident, the four cameras in the smartphone surprised her, in addition to the feature of artificial intelligence that enhances privacy.

"The colors are great, the camera is sharp clear, and I think Huawei is working to enhance its store, and this will stimulate the launch of applications compatible with it," she said.

HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G will be available in Kuwait as of Jan. 23.

The people have got the chance to experience 5G for the first time in Bangladesh. Huawei, the titanium sponsor of the fair, ensure 5G Live in the 'Digital Bangladesh Mela 2020' which has begun on Thursday at Bangabandhu International Conference Center at Agargaon in the Capital.

ICT Advisor to the Prime Minister Sajeeb Wazed Joy inaugurated the fair in presence of Post and  Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar; Mr. A.K.M. Rahmatullah, Chairman of Standing Committee on Ministry of Post  and Telecommunications, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Ltd. Zhang Zhengjun & Nur Ur Rahman, Secretary of The Ministry of Post & Telecommunications, said a press release.

Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited played a key role in the trial of 5G in Bangladesh on July 25 in 2018. At that time, the maximum speeds were 4 GBps by using 800 MHz spectrum. But now 1.4 GBps to 1.7 GBps data transfer rate can be ensured using one eighth spectrum (only 100 MHz) than that of last year. Today Dhaka experiences 1.6 GBps data speed with Huawei 5G. The incredible improvement happened due to the continuous efforts of Huawei in the development and research of the 5G network for a long time.

The CEO of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Ltd. Zhang Zhengjun said, “Over the last 21 years, Huawei has been working closely with the ICT industry, telecom operators and local partners to bridge the digital divide and bring the technical benefits to the people of Bangladesh. Now 5G is on, and Huawei is ready. We have spent a decade of research and development in 5G, spending over 4 Billion US Dollar in the last ten years alone to ensure the cutting-edge technology leadership, leading in 5G Research  and  Standardization with 2,1000+ 3GPP 5G NR Contributions of 5G patents”.

In this three-day digital fair, visitors will easily be able to experience the gigabit-level speed testing of 5G for free at Huawei's own pavilion. Moreover, there will be an arrangement of amazing Robot show, where the interactive humanoid robot will play soccer following the command of hand gesture. The arrangements aim to showcase the advancement of 5G technology in Human-to-Machine or Machine-to-Machine communication.

There will also be another play-zone where visitors can experience real-time virtual reality (VR) test through 5G technology. As soon as the visitors put on the 5G VR, they will find themselves skiing on the snow. Huawei’s 5G mobile phones will also be available in the pavilion. The visitors will be able to experience Huawei 5G smartphones and purchase the existing mobile phones in the fair.

Bdapps, a leading mobile app store of the country, has recently organised a developers’ conference at the United International University (UIU) auditorium.

A total of 300 apps developers from thirty universities of the country attended the conference.

State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak attended the conference as the Chief Guest where Robi’s Managing Director and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed was the Guest of Honour.

Vice-Chancellor of UIU, Professor Dr Chowdhury Mofizur Rahman and Robi’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Shihab Ahmad were also present there as Special Guests.

Acknowledging the tremendous progress made by bdapps, the ICT State Minister expressed his keen interest to work with bdapps.

Palak said that the government is planning to work with bdapps to facilitate the dynamic youth of the country to engage in digital innovation.

Alluding to the imminent fourth industrial revolution, he opined that “Very soon the job market is going to be transformed; necessity for physical labour will be eliminated, giving rise to the demand of digital skillset.”

Addressing the developers, Robi’s Managing Director and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, said “We will do everything possible to maximize the opportunity for apps developers associated with bdapps to grow their digital business.”

Robi’s CCO, Shihab Ahmad said that a total of 8,000 apps developers have so far hosted 14,000 apps on the app store until now and expressed his hope that by the end of the year, the platform would be able to host 30,000 apps by engaging with 15,000 apps developers.