Emerson on Thursday celebrated the opening of The Helix Innovation Center at Georgia Tech, a new collaboration and innovation space located in Technology Square. The site expands Emerson’s global network of innovation facilities focused on climate solutions, including The Helix Innovation Center at the University of Dayton in Ohio, The Europe Solution Center in Aachen, Germany, and The Emerson Innovation Centre in Pune, India.

The Tech Square location will serve as the focal point of Emerson’s development and collaboration on big data and Internet of Things concepts.

“Our investment in this collaboration and innovation space is a key part of our strategy to build relationships with academics, students, technology leaders and entrepreneurs. We want to create the right environment and culture for innovation to address industry challenges and better serve our customers,” said Mark Dunson, group vice president of electronics & solutions for Emerson.

The Helix Innovation Center at Georgia Tech is a nearly 1,600 square-foot facility, featuring the latest technology for effective in-person and virtual collaboration.

Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson welcomed Emerson to the Tech Square community and recognized the company as one of the world’s powerhouses in the electronics industry.

“We’re impressed by Emerson’s innovation speed,” Peterson said. “While we’re at the grand opening event today, the Emerson team has been active in the Tech Square community for more than a year, and is already deeply engaged with our students, faculty, and our innovation and entrepreneur community.”

Over the past couple of years more than a dozen corporations have opened or announced plans for innovation centers in Tech Square to access the talent and technologies that exist at Georgia Tech.

Emerson will leverage a variety of projects to explore solutions to customer problems through The Helix Innovation Center at Georgia Tech. Early projects already completed include multiple industry and product ideation sessions, reviews of new technology and entrepreneurial concepts, early development of advanced components for Emerson building management systems, and student engagements in research projects and prototyping product concepts.

Emerson will employ approximately a dozen people in The Helix Innovation Center at Georgia Tech; roughly half will be employees who rotate through from other Emerson locations.

Emerson employs more than 200 management, engineering, technical support, sales and manufacturing associates at its Kennesaw location, which focuses on serving the retail supermarket, convenience store, refrigerated transport and foodservice industries.

At The Helix, Emerson focuses on HVACR industry markets, including: supermarket refrigeration, food service operations, residential connected homes, data center cooling, industrial refrigeration and light commercial buildings.

For more information about the corporate innovation centers at Georgia Tech, please contact Greg King, associate vice president for economic development, at greg.king@gatech.edu.