Los Angeles - Disney (NYSE: DIS) announced on Tuesday that it will establish collaborative research and development labs with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The labs will conduct research and development into areas such as computer animation, computational cinematography, autonomous interactive characters, robotics and user interfaces for Disney's Parks & Resorts division, Disney Media Networks, ESPN, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disney Interactive Media Group and Pixar Animation Studios.

Each lab represents a five-year commitment from Disney to fund a director and 7-8 principal investigators.

"Extending our R&D efforts to these top-notch university partners will take our internal initiatives to a new level," said Joe Marks, vice president of R&D for Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development.

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