Forces Shaping the U.S. Academic Engineering Research Enterprise (1995) / Chapter Skim
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What Should Industry Expect from Academic Engineering Research?
What Should Industry Expect from Academic Engineering Research?
Pages 59-68
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From page 59... ...
Matters of indirect cost recovery, of getting sponsors to pay the full costs of research, matters of fraying university research infrastructure are all important, but they concern a large population of university departments, so I do not think they are peculiar to engineering research. Nor do I think it is very important to concern ourselves about undue influence by industry on the academic research agenda.
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From page 60... ...
Having said that technology transfer is not one of the real issues, I hasten to say that I do believe that academic engineering research can make a major contribution to improving the ability of our nation to realize the fruits of its investments in basic and applied research. But that contribution will have more to do with the nature of the advanced training given to Ph.D.'s than with the specific research results produced as part of that training.
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From page 61... ...
The next consideration to be kept in mind relates to changing industrial R&D portfolios. While many industries have been reassessing what types of applied and engineering research are likely to be of significant help to them in achieving comparative advantage in the coming decade, the engineering research portfolios of universities will probably change much too slowly to be in step with the needs of many sectors.
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From page 62... ...
In any future rethinking of engineering science Ph.D. programs, one should examine not only the appropriate portfolio of technical areas and programs maintained, but also ask, How can academic engineering research be more effective in helping the nation achieve its goals for more and better jobs, a rising standard of living, and a more sustainable relationship with the environment?
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From page 63... ...
in engineering research, a young person is expected to make an original contribution to fundamental engineering science. To get to the frontier, it is expected that one will ask a narrowly defined set of questions, and in that narrow region, think or experiment deeply.
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From page 64... ...
The burden of overspecialization is compounded by their often total lack of work experience outside the university and by a culture that often suggests to them in not so subtle ways that becoming like their professor should be their goal and mark of success. This paradoxical situation is due in part to the lack of serious requirements for scientific and technical breadth in the typical graduate curriculum, as well as to the fact that there is little or no encouragement, and a lot of implicit discouragement, for the young person who wants to spend time during graduate school off campus in a setting where technical knowledge is actually used.
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From page 65... ...
And by that I mean more than the casual knowledge that consultants obtain of the culture, the problems, and the intellectual value that exists in off-campus engineering research. It is true that, both as individuals and as members of their discipline, professors take pride in the fact that many of their students turn out to have highly successful careers in industrial management, or in government service, or in the business world generally, or as teachers and professors in nonresearch institutions.
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From page 66... ...
We feel this urgency because the students at issue are of enormous importance to our own future and because we believe that society's continued support of the university engineering research establishment depends in no small part on that establishment's doing, and being seen to do, a better job at fitting technically trained citizens to play their full role in achieving the goals of society to which science and technology can contribute.
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From page 67... ...
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