Dyson, the world’s leading advanced technologies firm, yesterday announced the setting up a dedicated software laboratory in the Philippines to expand its operation in the production of intelligent and advanced machines with embedded software, firming up the country’s major role in the company’s value chain.
In a virtual press conference, the company said that the new dedicated software lab in Alabang is part of its £2.75 billion investment in future technology of the British company, which has 10,551 patents and patents pending globally.
Scott Maguire, Dyson’s Chief Operating Officer, said the new investment will further support Filipino economy, generating 400 more highly skilled roles in software engineering and development over the next three years.
The new center also builds on Dyson’s existing engineering team in the Philippines and its advanced manufacturing facilities in Calamba, Laguna which employs 600 people and produces 13 million Dyson Hyperdymium™ digital motors a year. The existing Philippines Advanced Manufacturing Facility was established in 2016 at Carmelray Industrial Park II in Calamba, Laguna.
Roles in the software lab will include embedded software engineers, automation test engineers, scrum masters, product owners, program managers, release train engineers, and team leaders. These engineers will have experience with a range of software coding languages, including real time embedded ‘C’. They will also have good knowledge of microcontrollers and system on a chip (SoC) processors, and be familiar with embedded development tools. Interested candidates are encourage to submit their application to [email protected].
The software lab in the Philippines will form part of Dyson’s global research, design and development team, which spans, USA, UK, Shanghai, Singapore and Malaysia.
The new software lab reflects Dyson’s ambitions to double its portfolio of products and enter entirely new fields by 2025, as it accelerates research and development into robotics, software, AI, and machine learning. Dyson engineers and scientists are already creating a new generation of intelligent machines which understand their environment and their users, autonomously adjusting their performance. One product is the Dyson 360 Heurist™ robot vacuum combines Dyson’s propriety vision-based sensing and mapping with Dyson technologies to clean homes intelligently and thoroughly.
Another product is the Dyson Pure Cool™ purifying fans use advanced sensing and filtration technology to report live air quality to the user and autonomously provide clean air in the home. The Dyson Corrale™ straightener incorporates an intelligent sensor system to regulate and adjust the temperature of its plates 100 times per second, ensuring constant power and heat for enhanced styling.
Maguire cited its success in the Philippines to the government’s focus on engineering capabilities of its workforce and a culture that matches that of Dyson’s. These factors, he said, makes its Philippine operations one of the most advanced, highly efficient, and sustainable with high competitive edge manufacturing facility.
He said the Philippines is very much part of its supply chain in advanced manufacturing for the new technologies of the future. “This means that much of the value chain is going into the Philippines, being the major production hub in southeast Asia,” he said.
In choosing the Philippines, Maguire said “The Philippines is home to bright, young engineers who share Dyson’s ambition to develop technologies for the future. Dyson has been growing in the Philippines for this reason and it is a nation that clearly celebrates both engineers and technology. We already have a brilliant team of engineers here and have manufactured over 20 million Dyson Hyperdymium™ motors from our advanced manufacturing facility in Calamba. We will continue to invest in the Philippines and look forward to having more highly skilled Filipino engineers join our ranks to develop and manufacture exciting new technologies for the future, which will be used all around the world.”
For its part, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the government is proud to support Dyson’s further expansion in the Philippines. “This is testament to our business-friendly environment, and speaks to the Philippines being an attractive destination for investment. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Dyson in the years ahead,” he said.
Charito B. Plaza, the Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) lauded Dyson for its continuous good performance since the start of its registration with the Authority in 2016. Dyson is registered with the PEZA.
“Dyson significantly contributes to investment, export-income generation as well as jobs creation and we note that it received the PEZA ‘Outstanding Exporters Award’ in 2018 and 2019. As we promote Filipino-driven industrialization, we look forward to Dyson recruiting more Filipino engineers to be a part of Dyson’s software innovations,” said.
Plaza added that Dyson’s planned software lab reflects the company’s long-term commitment to the Philippines, and is a validation of the skills and talents that our engineering workforce holds. This will create exciting career opportunities for the brightest of our engineers who wish to design and develop software for a renowned and fast-growing global technology company.”
Having started in a Coach House near Bath, UK, Dyson has consistently grown since it was established in 1993. Today Dyson is a global technology company with engineering, research, development and testing operations in the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Dyson directly employs over 14,000 people globally including 6,000 engineers and scientists. Drawing on its global research and development network, Dyson is realizing ambitious plans to develop new technologies with global teams, focused solid-state battery cells, high-speed electric motors, vision systems, machine learning technologies, and A.I. Investment. Alongside the growing in-house activity, the Dyson Robotics Lab at Imperial College London continues its long-term research program.
Dyson technology is increasingly enabled through long-term investments into research, design and development in areas as broad as software, connectivity, power electronics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, sensing technology and navigation systems.