Thanks to this new partnership between Swiss Post and the University of Fribourg, the Human-IST Research Center will be extending its research in the area of new cutting-edge interactive technologies and developing a collaborative ecosystem to make everyday life easier.

The Human-IST Research Center (Human-Centered Interaction Science & Technology) of the University of Fribourg has been advocating cutting-edge research in the area of human-machine interaction since 2015. Thanks to a new partnership with Swiss Post, the research team will be expanding its research activities in the field of soft and cognitive computing from smart home to smart cities. The aim is to make people’s everyday life easier – both where they live and in areas like urban mobility – by developing new technologies which are mindful of human values.

Shared challenges
With the rise of new technologies, interactions between humans and their environment undergo radical change. The task facing the researchers at the Human-IST Center is to anticipate future developments and to gauge their impact on people and society. So the challenge is to invent new interactive technologies which are sympathetic to and mindful of people’s place in the scheme of things as well as of sustainable development. A challenge which Swiss Post has decided to support for an initial period of four years.

A partnership for the future
For more than twenty years, Swiss Post has been collaborating with a number of Swiss university institutes whose scientific fields are, in general, particularly relevant for its own development. New trends in interactive technologies, such as the Internet of things, are going to involve permanent changes to Swiss Post’s core business. The Center’s network and its skills in the design and evaluation of cognitive systems open up a wealth of prospects which could enable Swiss Post to expand its current service offerings by applying new business models. This is why it expects this partnership to provide it with a deeper understanding of the subject to enable it to prepare for the future.

Further information:

- Website of the Human-IST Research Center
- Website of the Foundation of the University of Fribourg