Research and Innovation on Information Technology: The Role of a Regional University Research Center Luis Orozco-Barbosa [Professor, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha] Abstract: The European commission has recognized the important role played by the universities in building the European Knowledge Society. As creators of new knowledge, the universities find themselves at the core of the knowledge society. At the regional level, the sustainable development will highly depend on the ability of their education and research institutions to actively participate in innovation programmes focusing on the transfer of technology to the local and regional industry: an activity having a central place in the regional development. Throughout Europe, there are a large number of initiatives promoting the participation of the regional high-level education institutions. The university is therefore being called to participate as a main actor to improve the regional economic competitiveness and to actively contribute to solve the regional needs and strategies. In this talk, a review of some of the successful stories will be first given, then we will focus on the RTD activities being carried out in the Albacete Research Institute of Informatics: a recently created research institute making part of the Science and Technology Park of Castilla La Mancha. Speaker bio: Luis Orozco-Barbosa received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico, in 1979, the Diplome d’études Approfondies from École Nationale Supérieure d´Informatique et de Mathématiques Appliquées (ENSIMAG), France, in 1984 and the Doctorat de l´Université from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France, in 1987, both in computer science. From 1991 to 2002, he was a Faculty member at the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), University of Ottawa, Canada. In 2002, he joined the Department of Computer Engineering at Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (Spain). He has also been appointed Director of the Albacete Research Institute of Informatics, a Regional Centre of Excellence. He has conducted numerous research projects with the private sector and served as Technical Advisor for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). His current research interests include wireless communications, wireless sensor networks and their use on many different areas ranging from environmental monitoring to manufacturing.

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