Technology giant Google announced Thursday plans to open in Rochester the company’s first office in Minnesota, a development that company officials say will bolster an ongoing partnership with the Mayo Clinic.
Located at Collider Coworker in the Conley-Maass-Downs building in downtown Rochester, the space will be up and running as soon as possible given safety concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google and Mayo announced a partnership in 2019 on cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence that shows how large technology giants are playing a bigger role in health care. They’ve worked together to launch Mayo Clinic Platform, a tool for research that draws on de-identified clinic data that’s been moved onto Google’s cloud computing service.
The new office will employ a “solid handful” of people, said Chris Mueller, the site lead for the Rochester office and a software engineer with Google Cloud, in an interview. He didn’t offer figures for initial or future staffing.
Google plans to open the office later this year.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the importance of coming together to come up with innovative ways of tackling health challenges,” Mueller said in a statement. “We are excited to officially join the Rochester community and deepen our collaboration with Mayo Clinic as we work together to transform health through technology.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Christopher Snowbeck • 612-673-4744
Twitter: @chrissnowbeck