Partnerships with Industry
Dr. Susan Williams
Georgia Southern University
SIGCSE 2009
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Why collaborate?
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Bring together different perspectives and skills
Achieve synergistic outcomes
Improve research productivity
Typical collaborations
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Your colleagues and students
Interdisciplinary
Across academic institutions
With research labs
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A different approach:
 An example from a “teaching-first”
institution
 Benefits
 Resources required
 Pitfalls to avoid
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Partnership between Georgia Southern
University and NCR Corporation to develop
next generation of one of NCR’s point-of-sale
systems
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How it began
Why Georgia Southern???
 Role of new College of IT
 Role of Intellectual Capital Partnership Program
(ICAPP)
 My role
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NCR donated the IP (source code and
hardware)
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More than one million lines of code
Valued by Ernst & Young at $2.7 million
GSU assumed responsibility for software
development
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Migration to touch screen hardware
New functionality and features
Translation to Chinese and other foreign languages
Customizations for large clients (US Customs and
Border Patrol, Tim Horton’s Donuts, Amtrak)
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GSU has a royalty arrangement with NCR
which generates a revenue stream as new
licenses are sold
Customizations for large clients are negotiated
on a cost-plus basis
ICAPP continues to invest in the project
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Benefits to the company
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Maintain and enhance (at no R&D cost) a product that
would otherwise have been shelved
Tax write-off for donation
Benefits to academic programs and institution
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Reputation and credibility
Enhanced relationships with employers
Demonstrated “proof of concept” for university
outsourcing
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Benefits to the faculty/project manager
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Access to industry problems, code, data, & users
Benefits to students
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Real-world work experience while still in school
Employment opportunities with the company after
graduation
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Benefits to the region
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Led to several other smaller partnerships with regional
companies
 Police Agency Data Network
 CogentWare (Business Intelligence)
 Morris Multimedia
 ColorMaria
 And others
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IT workforce development in rural Georgia
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Funding source for start-up
Legal support/expertise
Physical space and furnishings
Administrative support
Training
Initial knowledge transfer from NCR
 Ongoing (with students)
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Software and hardware to support development
Source code repository and configuration management
 Server(s)
 Reference library
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A full-time technical “guru” – probably not a
faculty member
An “executive sponsor” who can solve the nontechnical problems
Pool of capable students (across disciplines)
A lot of patience and determination
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Universities are often not accustomed to “profitcenter” initiatives
You must “think outside the box”
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Secure top-level support before you begin (in
writing if you can)
Allow ample time to process legal contracts
and set up revenue accounts
Work with HR and Budget offices to figure out
how to do what (they will tell you) “can’t be
done”
Recognize need for (and secure) administrative
support
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Be honest with yourself about your capabilities,
those of your students, and those of your
department/university
Develop a rigorous training program
Set high standards for performance and stick to
them
Hire the right students (and fire those who
don’t perform)
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Make sure that your efforts will be recognized
as “valuable contributions” in tenure &
promotion decisions
Continue scholarly research if possible
Toot your own horn!
Know when to hand it off to someone else