IBM Research is teaming up with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to explore new opportunities in the field of immersive cognitive systems.

Cognitive computing systems are meant to narrow the communication gap that occurs between humans and computers.

It is designed to collaborate with humans in more natural ways through interaction.

It also helps individuals and teams to make better decisions by making sense of massive unstructured data.

The joint research will be conducted at Rensselaer’s Cognitive and Immersive Systems Lab (CISL) which is built around a futuristic "Situations Room" that can be adapted to industry-specific environments when required.

CISL plans to explore and advance natural, collaborative problem-solving among groups of humans and machines.

The CISL platform is an immersive, interactive, reconfigurable physical environment which includes Boardrooms, Design Studios, Diagnosis Rooms and Immersive Classrooms that enhances group cognition.

It responds to its occupants by "listening" and "watching" them, and also engages multiple users working in small groups at the same time on different aspects of a larger activity.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson said: "With the new lab, we are taking an important step towards a future in which smart machines and smart humans potentiate each other, and the end result is better decisions and outcomes.

"We are bringing together two separate strains of emergent technologies to enhance the power of the other: cognitive computing technologies coupled with intensive visual and auditory immersive environments we are developing at Rensselaer."