Poaching the former director of the US research agency DARPA to lead a new research and development lab focused on large technological leaps, Facebook has hired Regina Dugan from Google.

The new unit called Building 8 will create products to advance Facebook’s mission of “connecting the world” and the social network will invest hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of people in it. Areas such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality would be the sphere of work of Building 8 which will work on hardware powered by Facebook software.

Ms Dugan will apply “DARPA-style breakthrough development” at the intersection of science and products, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive, said. The groundwork for many important consumer products we rely on today, such as GPS, was laid by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.

“This method is characterised by aggressive, fixed timelines, extensive use of partnerships with universities, small and large businesses, and clear objectives for shipping products at scale,” he said.

Terming her exit from the Google’s advanced technology and projects group which she headed, Ms Dugan said it was “bittersweet” to leave.

“Building 8 is an opportunity to do what I love most . . . tech infused with a sense of our humanity. Audacious science delivered at scale in products that feel almost magic. A little badass. And beautiful. There is much to build atFacebook . . . and the mission is human . . . compelling,” she wrote in a post on the social network.

Recently Facebook has laid out a 10 year plan at its annual developer conference. The company is focusing on three pillars of artificial intelligence. These are powering the main app and bots on Messenger, virtual reality, through its Oculus VR hardware unit and through social experiences in VR on the Facebook site; and connectivity, bringing billions more people online around the world.

As part of its Internet.org project to connect the world, much of its hardware development has been focused on connectivity. Two new products that will help improve internet access in urban and suburban environments were unveiled on Wednesday by Jay Parikh, vice-president of engineering at Facebook.

Using software to manage the extra load, and reaching suburban populations where internet connections can begin to get patchy, Project Aries dramatically expands the number of antennas on each urban cell tower. By attaching the new devices, for example, to lamp posts, Terragraph is an open source technology that can be used to supply fast WiFi to public areas. San Jose, a city to the south of Silicon Valley, will trial the technology this year.

Acquila, and a satellite which is set to be launched to beam down internet to Sub-Saharan Africa later this year and the existing hardware projects focused on rural areas including Facebook’s drone would be complemented.

(Source:www.cnbc.com)

Categories: Strategy