Facebook has a new hardware research unit dubbed Building 8, and it hired the former head of Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group and director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Regina Dugan to take the helm.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the department will focus on developing hardware products that will further the company's vision of connecting the world. At this point, it's not exactly clear what Dugan and her team will work on, but based on the post of the company's head honcho, she will concentrate on building hardware running on Facebook software and other products related to the social media firm's efforts in the virtual reality and artificial intelligence games.
Aside from that, Zuckerberg hopes to have her apply a "DARPA-style breakthrough development" that'll ultimately benefit the mission of the firm.
It should also be noted that this is only the beginning of Facebook's search of talent in Silicon Valley.
"We'll be investing hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars into this effort over the next few years," he says, hinting that more similar hires in the future are safe to expect.
Dugan says that it's a "bittersweet day."
"I am on the one hand, tremendously excited ... On the other hand, I am sad to leave the pirates of ATAP," she says, as expected, on Facebook, fondly remembering that she and the folks over at ATAP do some "epic sh*t" – her words.
Notable works she supervised include Project Tango and Project Ara, two ventures that are part of Google's out-of-this-world Moonshot Projects.
Meanwhile, Google thanks Dugan for her leadership in the ATAP group and "[wishes] her the very best."
It's also worth mentioning that Facebook is not a part of the no-hiring agreement among the likes of Adobe, Apple, Intel and Google, and that's why it could take this move.
