Session VIII. Academia and Business: Fostering New Kinds of ConnectionsCo-chair: Lee Todd, President, University of Kentucky Presenter: Manav Subodh, Acting Global Manager, Intel® Higher Education Program (manav.subodh@intel.com ). Presenter: Tracy Wilen-Daugenti, Managing Director, Public Sector Practice, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco Systems twilen@cisco.com Note-Taker: Darya Bubman, AAAS Science Policy Fellow, U.S. Department of State (BubmanD@State.gov ) and Lawrence Lin AAAS Science Policy Fellow, U.S. Department of State President Todd set the tone for the meeting by speaking of the importance of including all partners – academia, industry, and government. He stressed the value of these connections in developing the skills, curriculum, and technology, to create a sustainable job market, both domestically and internationally. He pointed out that academia and government are also customers to industry. He then introduced the first speaker, Manav Subodh, Acting Global Higher Education Manager for Intel Corporation. Manav Subodh entitled his presentation Social Entrepreneurship – A Government, Business and Academia Partnership Model in India. He first introduced the Intel objectives worldwide and explained that Intel believes that good innovation stems from good education. Therefore, Intel is working at the school level – changing the curriculum across the board and working with teachers and governments – to improve how math and science are taught. He explained that education is the foundation and needs to endow robust creativity, after which strong R&D systems must be in place to support creativity. Mr. Subodh then spoke of the importance of the Government-Industry-Academia link, and used India as a major case study for Intel. He described the innovation cycle as experienced by Intel, which is based on education, innovation, entrepreneurship, government, industry and academia. He stressed that innovation is the key in emerging economies such as India, and that while industry promotes and advances research, the universities are crucial for idea creation. Industry is excellent at identifying and formulating problems, but not at idea creation. Similarly, engineers solve problems, but this is not enough. In India, Intel has helped 242 colleges (this represents more than 10% of the engineering schools in India) change their curricula, which represents a grassroots approach. Mr. Subodh detailed a joint Intel-UC Berkeley program focused on changing curriculum, incorporating entrepreneurship and fostering creativity. He explained that the disconnect is the gap between a need and a business plan, and that we need to move toward finding solutions for unique needs in developing countries by making the connection between people researching the need and those in need. A concrete example is connecting Berkeley students with development needs via an NGO in a program that targets health, sustainability and education. The program focuses on three segments: students, faculty and schools, and government. He emphasized that entrepreneurship in not necessarily innovation. Throughout all this he explained that corporate social responsibility is an Intel objective. He spoke of the difficulty of incubating ideas, which is a societal problem and a cultural issue, and we need to find ways to stimulate this. He referred to the Intel Innovation Scholarship Program, which encourages taking a chance, including the possibility of failure. He concluded that we need a new model for emerging economies and to involve partners of all segments, which is a work in progress. As an example of a case study to solve grassroots problems he presented the example of an ICT solution for a large hospital, bringing local care to people who can’t travel (remote diagnosis, online prescription). Mr. Subodh concluded by describing Intel’s citizenship program, and said we need to continue discussing ‘how to get the mode right’ in terms of education and innovation, and then how to scale it up. He left this as an open question for the audience. President Chu introduced Tracy Wilen-Daugenti, Managing Director, Public Sector Practice for the Internet Business Solutions Group of Cisco Systems. Tracy Wilen-Daugenti spoke on, Industry and Academic Partnerships that Build Global Capacity, Research, and Next Generation Innovation. She discussed which direction higher education is evolving, from her experience and discussions with schools all over the world. She said that learning environments really do follow a network model, with each node being a knowledge point. As the network evolves and expands, technology comes into play in all university decisions. She spoke about what Cisco can do to help universities evolve (recruiting, management, connections, alliances) and of the importance of involving all industry partners to ensure that technological solutions are compatible. A big piece of this is to “inter-operate” with industry partners to bring solutions and offer guidance on future directions in terms of technology, stating that “Cisco can address all your needs.” She said that universities come to Cisco to ask about competition vs. collaboration, and the answer is often collaboration. Aside from being a vendor, Cisco brings additional expertise in terms of strategic vision. She concluded by saying that the internet and education are the great equalizers. President Chu then introduced Barbara Waugh, The Director of University Relations for the Hewlett-Packard Company. Barbara Waugh presented Hewlett-Packard and Academia: Building the Global Innovation Mega Community. Barbara Waugh, Director of Africa, Middle East, and Gender Equality Globally at the Open Innovation Office at Hewlett-Packard (HP), discussed her work on new models for international partnerships in education and training. While traditional models have been extractive and have pulled students from out of their home countries to be schooled, she emphasized newer models which consist of innovation systems and joint partnerships between universities, government, and industry. The stronger the relationship base between these entities, the greater the accomplishments and results. Dr. Waugh highlighted several programs in which HP has been involved. Engineering for the Americas is a joint collaboration by the University of Miami and the University of Rochester to help create highly trained engineering students across the Americas. Students who participate learn about leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, and policy as well as meet with prominent leaders and researchers in industry, academia, and government. Engineering Africa focuses on building capacity for engineering education in order to alleviate poverty and increase global competitiveness in Africa. The idea is to attract foreign direct investment through better quality assurance and create a pool of certified highly qualified engineers. Universities, industry, academia, and non-governmental organizations are all involved as stakeholders of this mission. UNESCO and HP have launched a program called Piloting Solutions for Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa to provide grid computing technology that will help faculty and students in universities around the world collaborate on research. Successful collaborative efforts with international institutions based within students’ home countries will encourage them not to go abroad to complete their studies. HP will provide equipment, training, and support for this initiative until each of the projects is self-sustainable. HP has also been a partner in the International Task Force on Women and ICTs (information and communications technologies) whose goal is to increase the participation of women in ITC globally. The initiative will launch several centers worldwide and will include metrics to ensure that there is a measurable impact due to their efforts. HP is also putting out a request for proposals for collaborative research worldwide. The solicitation is open and competitive and will provide funding opportunities for international graduate students and faculty in topic areas that are of the mutual interest to both HP and researchers from other institutions. Discussion The discussion session brought forth a number of specific questions. The first was related to the fact that we hear corporations talk about the few very top U.S. university programs with which they have cooperative arrangements, but very little about other programs. The response from the speakers was that they focus on the top programs and might consider arrangements with others. A second question referred to the tensions that sometimes develop between cooperative faculty/corporate programs and the purchasing practices of the universities. This is an area of potential ethical consideration where philanthropy might overlap into pressure in purchasing equipment. Tracy Wilen-Daugenti responded by indicating that Cisco avoids this by viewing their role as selling appropriate advice to universities. Barbara Waugh indicated that Hewlett-Packard requires the university to look at the picture as a whole, with philanthropy and purchasing part of that total picture. In that light, decisions on purchasing should take into account the desire to keep the philanthropic relationship with HP. A third question raised the issue of getting companies to invest in developing areas of the world where there is not yet a pool of well educated people, which was referred to as the “chicken and egg” problem. Manav Subodh and Tracy Wilen-Daugenti indicated that Intel and Cisco view their mission to include going to countries to help build the capacity. A follow-up question related to providing materials such as books to developing countries and the issue of obsolescence. Tracy Wilen-Daugenti indicated that Cisco considers textbooks as obsolete because so much quality content is on the internet, and therefore from Cisco’s role the problem is no longer an issue. Barbara Waugh indicated that HP emphasizes university-industry advisory boards as their main avenue for collaboration. A question was asked about government-academic-industry partnerships in developing countries in which the government is not a stable partner. Manav Subodh said that Intel looks for strong academic-industry partnerships, and lets the university work out the relationship with the government. Barbara Waugh stated that non-functioning governments will receive peer pressure from neighboring countries. A strong relationship between SUNY and Turkey was described, in which hundreds of Turkish students come to the U.S. to study English and learn about U.S. programs. Co-Chair Paul Chu raised the question of why students are moving from developing countries. He felt this related primarily to a lack of economic opportunity. He also commented on the decreasing popularity of science and engineering programs, and stated that the reward system needs to change if we want to stop losing young people to business careers. Co-Chair Lee Todd responded that he felt that many of these are natural trends that go through cycles. He pointed out, for instance, that the field is dead for the supply of school science teachers, and raised the specter of differential pay for scientists and engineers. In response to a question about ensuring progress with programs in developing countries, Tracy Wilen-Daugenti indicated that Cisco uses MOU’s with milestones to ensure progress. Manav Subodh said that Intel only goes to countries were the assurance of timing fits their needs. Summary of Presentations Strong academic-industry partnerships, with the inclusion of government, are necessary for the advancement of technology, which is crucial for future economic and social development of all countries. Summary of Discussions Needs There is a need to develop effective mechanisms through university-industry-government partnerships to promote business entree into countries where there is not yet a substantial well-educated workforce. Universities and business need to be able to determine which countries are appropriate for U.S. partnerships based on indicators that those countries are ready for development, and the government there will provide stable long-term policies. Opportunity/Recommendation It is strongly recommended that international industry advisory boards be created by universities in all countries in order to get useful feedback and quality assessment, and to create working business partnerships. This is especially important in developing countries, where these boards should include former citizens who have gone abroad for education and professional careers. USAID may have an assisting role in this. |
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