The Grand Opening of Nokia Research Center (my previous employer) in Palo Alto was yesterday. The festivities included a formal event in the afternoon and an evening reception with music, food, and schmoozing. It was nice to see that the opening has received quite a lot of press already. Check for example news coverage through Google News.

At the same time a 3-year collaborative effort with Stanford University (especially with the School of Engineering) was announced. This is extra cool, as I am a big fan of what the researchers at Stanford have done so far with mobile devices.

What the new NRC site will be concentrating on? Based on this press release from Nokia: "Nokia Research Center Palo Alto will initially focus on four core areas:

• Context-aware content and communities, which could provide technology advancements in the areas of search, advertising and recommendation engines;
• Wireless grids, that enable a large number of diverse devices to work together;
• Advanced user interfaces and visual media, for Nokia multimedia computers;
• Innovation radio and sensor networks, offering novel applications of emerging short-range radio technologies. "