ABSTRACT: 2015 ELATE Institutional Action Project Poster Symposium
Project Title: Effective Industry-University Interactions Around Smart Infrastructure
Name and Institution: Burcu Akinci, Carnegie Mellon University
Collaborators: James H. Garrett. Dean of Engineering, David Dzombak, Department Head of
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colleen Mantini, program manager of Smart Infrast. Inst.,
Randy Eager and Matthew Sanfilippo, Corporate Relations.
Background, Challenge or Opportunity: Strong industry interactions are necessary for the
vitality of a department or a center and the benefits can be many folded for both university and
industry participants. From the university perspective, benefits include but not limited to
funding and gifts, mentorship and job opportunities for students and providing test-beds and
data for researchers. From the industry perspective, benefits include but not limited to
increased innovation with less risk and less resource commitment, and recruiting students.
Effective industry-university interactions can result in ever-increasing win-win opportunities for
all parties and yet they require commitment of time and other resources to create and
maintain. This is especially true in building partnerships with mature industries, such as
civil/infrastructure engineering, within which most of the companies do not have significant
funding to support research and development activities. This challenge is evident by the large
variation in the percentage contribution of industry supported expenditures (ranging from 5%
to 35% ) in top ten civil and environmental engineering departments (ASEE 2013). At the same
time different models of industry interactions are being successfully implemented in many
universities. Studying and analyzing such models of interactions would enable us to develop
and implement sustained interaction mechanisms that provide value to all stakeholders
without requiring large resource commitments.
Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this institutional action project is to explore, understand
and implement different models of university-industry interactions around the area of smart
infrastructure systems. This project targets both creation of new interactions and maintenance
of existing relations with less resource commitments. The specific objectives are : (1)
development and implementation of a multi-faceted approach for establishing effective
university-industry interactions with different types of companies; (2) identification and
implementation of best practices for maintaining established relations.
Methods/Approach: The approach includes: (1) benchmarking existing interactions models
within CMU and at civil engineering departments in other universities; (2) performing
interviews and focus groups with existing partners to understand their perceptions on
successful interactions; (3) performing interviews and focus groups with targeted future
partners to their perceptions on successful interactions; (4) learning from the first three
activities, developing and implementing a multi-faceted interaction approach; (5) evaluating the
implemented approach for its effectiveness.
Outcomes and Evaluation: The metrics for evaluation include numbers and diversity of
industry partners and the ways that they interact with the university; continuity of the
interactions; resources required to attract and maintain relations.
Effective University-Industry Interactions Around Smart Infrastructure
Burcu Akinci, Paul Christiano Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Co-Director of Smart Infrastructure Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Presented at the 2015 ELATE(R) Leaders Forum
•
Strong university-industry interactions can create
tremendous value to many stakeholders.
•
Creating and maintaining university-industry
interactions can be more challenging in some
industries, such as civil engineering, than others.
•
Exploring and implementing different ways of
interactions can attract diverse group of companies and
maintain existing interactions in less resource-intensive
manner.
The purpose is to explore, understand and implement different
models of university-interactions around the area of smart
infrastructure systems through: (1) identification of best practices;
(2) implementation of multi-modular approach.
Approach
(1) benchmarking; (2) interviews and focus groups with existing
partners; (3) interviews and focus groups with targeted future
partners; (4) developing/implementing a multi-modular
interaction approach; (5) evaluating its effectiveness.
Outcomes and
Evaluation
Metrics for evaluation:
- numbers and diversity
of industry partners and
the ways that they
interact with the
university;
- continuity of the
interactions;
- resources required to
attract and maintain
relations.
Ratio
Challenges and Opportunities
CEE - Industry funding to total funding
ratio
Purpose and Objectives
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2011
2012
2013
Universities
Multi-model web of interactions
Collaborators
Dean James Garrett, CEE
Department Head David
Dzombak, Matt Sanfilippo
and Randy Eager from
Corporate Relations
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the Covalent Bonds Learning
Community for their encouragement and support.