Intel's $30 million investment in two new research centers that will focus on cloud computing and embedded technology is the latest in a string of facilities that are run in conjunction with academic institutions.

The new centers, announced Aug. 3, are part of a larger plan outlined by Intel Labs executives in January to invest $100 million to create Intel Science and Technology Centers -- or ISTC -- headquartered at various universities throughout 2011, focusing on a wide range of areas. Both will be housed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., with which Intel already has a close relationship.

Stanford University was the first site for such a center, with a focus on visual computing. In June, Intel Labs opened a second one, focusing on secure computing, at the University of California-Berkeley.

"These new ISTCs are expected to open amazing possibilities," Intel CTO Justin Rattner said in a statement. "Imagine, for example, future cars equipped with embedded sensors and microprocessors to constantly collect and analyze traffic and weather data. That information could be shared and analyzed in the cloud so that drivers could be provided with suggestions for quicker and safer routes."

The goal of the centers is to collaborate with the schools to create technological advances that can be used, not only by Intel, but others throughout the industry. The ISTCs use open IP models, and the research results will become publically available through technical publications and open-source software releases, according to Intel officials.

The research done at the centers will have wide appeal, according to Roger Kay, principal analyst for Endpoint Technologies Associates.

"Like fireworks on the 4^th of July, project after project has gone up, each addressing a potentially high-value aspect of future computing," Kay wrote in an Aug. 3 blog posting for Forbes.com. "Whatever goodness these joint efforts yield will be donated to the public domain so that others may harvest some of the benefits. And if that degree of openness isn't enough, Intel is inviting the public to send in its own proposals for research to explore possibly productive spheres in information technology."

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