Balkenende officially opens FiftyTwoDegrees
14 November 2007
[Translate to English:] Jan Peter Balkenende, minister-president van Nederland en voorzitter van het landelijk Innovatieplatform en Frans van Houten, CEO van NXP Semiconductors, hebben op woensdag 14 november om 13.25 uur het FiftyTwoDegrees Business Innovation Center officieel geopend. Daarbij werd de nieuwe NFC techniek van NXP gebruikt. Frans van Houten nam met een mobiele telefoon een foto van de minister-president. Jan Peter Balkenende haalde vervolgens een badge langs de telefoon, waardoor de foto onmiddellijk werd geprojecteerd op een groot scherm.
Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of The Netherlands and chairman of the nationwide Innovation platform, along with Frans van Houten, CEO of NXP Semiconductors, on Wednesday, 14 November at 13.25pm CET, officially opened the FiftyTwoDegrees Business Innovation Center. To do so, the two dignitaries used the new NFC technology from NXP. Mr. Houten first took a photo of the prime minister with his mobile phone. Mr. Balkenende then waved a badge over the telephone, which immediately projected the photo onto a large screen.
As chairman of the Innovation platform, Mr. Balkenende underscored the importance of the cooperation between the business world and the scientific community. He praised the building as a breeding ground for creativity, new forms of collaboration and concrete solutions to the questions of the future. In short: an incubator for ideas.
To honor the occasion, NXP pledged a €20,000 scholarship to the Innovation platform. The scholarship will be granted to an outstanding Master's student to be selected by the Innovation platform.
NXP, which is the largest tenant at FiftyTwoDegrees, has commissioned a work of art by the expressive artist Ellen Brouwers specially in honor of the opening of this important new location. This interactive work is titled ‘NEXPERIA’. The piece represents the relationship between semiconductors, NXP’s chief product, and nature.
