Oracle opens new R&D lab in Morocco, its first in Africa
The American giant of database management systems, Oracle Corporation, has announced the opening of a new branch of Oracle Labs, the company’s advanced research arm, in Casablanca, its very first Research and Development (R&D) laboratory in Africa.
Oracle’s new lab will accommodate up to 100 researchers. Oracle’s cloud, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies will be used by researchers at the new center to address the most important issues confronting industry, science, and public sector, the company said in a press release.
Taking advantage of its new facility, the team will collaborate with Morocco’s technology sector to support the identification, exploration, and transfer of new technologies that can advance Oracle’s customer’s businesses worldwide. Expansion of intern and graduate recruiting programs, cooperative research with local universities, and collaboration with the local startup environment will all be part of this global program, the release added.
“Establishing this new Oracle R&D center in Casablanca will enable us to access an outstanding pool of talent from across the region, benefit directly from its new economic ties to Israel, and provide our customers around the world with new cutting edge technologies,” said Safra Catz, chief executive officer, Oracle, who was on a visit to Morocco.
“We are delighted that Oracle has selected Morocco as the location for the expansion of its global R&D program. This provides the opportunity for talented people in Morocco to help create world leading technology solutions. We hope the lab is the first step towards placing Morocco at the heart of Oracle’s business in the region,” said Mohcine Jazouli, Morocco’s Minister Delegate in charge of Investment, convergence and the evaluation of Public Policies.
“The mission of Oracle Labs is to identify, explore, and transfer new technologies that have the potential to help solve the world’s biggest challenges,” added Dr Hassan Chafi, vice president – Research and Advanced Development, Oracle Labs. “In addition to their outstanding technology skills, most engineers in Morocco speak three languages and bring an open-minded and creative approach to their work. This makes them ideal members of a team focused on developing technology that will play a significant role in our rapidly evolving, global society.”
The new Oracle facility will be part of Oracle’s global R&D innovation network. In these centers, researchers apply novel approaches and methodologies using cloud-based technologies to create meaningful solutions. This work includes research, consulting, and product incubation with most projects involving university collaborations and interns from over 50 universities worldwide.
The new Oracle lab in Morocco will work on a wide range of R&D projects focusing on technologies such as automated machine learning and explainability, the PGX Parallel Graph Accelerator solution, and Oracle’s MySQL Heatwave ML.
