A detailed article on the University of Toronto’s new DiscoverResearch portal and its potential to enhance industry engagement appears in the November issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor. For subscription information, click here.

In a move that’s expected to enhance its already robust infrastructure for corporate engagement, sponsored research, public-private collaboration and problem solving, the University of Toronto has activated the DiscoverResearch website, populated with a growing and granular list of faculty profiles that can be accessed with a few key words and the click of a mouse.

A few years in the making, the high-tech search engine scrapes scholarly information from trusted and predesignated internet sites and automatically updates the profiles with detailed information on academic and creative works, patents, research, and leadership. The profiles also include biographical information showing a scholar’s academic and non-academic positions, education, and availability. In essence, the profiles furnish everything a potential partner needs, at least in the early stages, to make an informed decision about who they want to work with on their project, whether it’s a six-month collaboration or a long-term, strategic agreement.

Launched in June, the portal is stocked with more than 2,200 profiles and has already generated 50,000 unique visitors and over 300,000 unique views. The U of T — top 3 in the world for research citations — wants to eventually populate the portal with more than 5,000 profiles, displaying the full might of the university’s capabilities, including researchers at the affiliated hospitals in the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN), and develop a set of metrics that don’t just measure the site’s traffic, but the results it generates.

Now that DiscoverResearch has been implemented, the five-year agreement with third-party provider Symplectic Elements — which constructed the site — will begin to transition into the maintenance phase as more faculty profiles and more information, like patents and IP, flow into the system.

Before undertaking a project of this size, expense and complexity, U of T had to justify it in terms of its benefits to the research enterprise. While the information DiscoverResearch brings to bear is expansive and its ability to drill down into the sprawling landscape of academia is impressive, the reasoning behind installing the system was quite practical. Leaders there cite their reasoning and expected benefits as follows:

Why it was needed:

— U of T is massive and decentralized, and it can be difficult to quickly find people and expertise.

— That difficulty can be expressed is numbers: 16,500-plus faculty members, many conducting research across three campuses, 17 academic divisions and over 200 units, and several affiliated hospitals.

— Access to untapped potential, a need to further connect U of T researchers with the world.

Value add:

— Value will come from connecting U of T faculty with the audiences that find them through the tool. Intended audience is anyone looking for an expert — media, prospective graduate students, industry, community partners, and fellow academic collaborators.

— Business Development Officers across U of T will use DiscoverResearch to quickly connect industry with relevant experts.

— The site allows industry to self-serve and find relevant expertise.

— It brings significant benefits to faculty members and staff at U of T to leverage data for CVs, support grant applications, internal reporting, and quality assurance.

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Ohio State University (OSU) has partnered with Honda to launch a new battery cell research and development center. continue reading »

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has received a $400 million pledge from alum Ross M. Brown, who founded Cryogenic Industries, a massively successful company that developed equipment for cryogenic gas processing. continue reading »

New York University (NYU) Langone Health is partnering with Philips to enhance patient care through innovation and technology commercialization. continue reading »

The landscape for corporate partnerships is vast and wide, while industry engagement and corporate relations staff members can usually be counted on one hand. That makes efficiency of effort critical. Time and resources spent marketing to new potential partners and nurturing the relationships you already have must be laser-focused on where you can realize the greatest return on those efforts.

Corporate tiering, a strategy for identifying your most valuable partnerships as well as your best prospects — and for maximizing those engagements in a strategic way for the university — has been utilized by Virginia Tech and the University of Washington for years with great success. Using a data-focused approach, the corporate tiering strategy allows the schools to sift through the thousands of sponsors providing gifts and other research support to identify and cultivate the most important relationships.

Our Distance Learning Division teamed up with the industry engagement leaders at both schools to produce this detailed partnership-building program: Corporate Tiering Strategies: Identifying and Nurturing High-Value Industry Partnerships, available in on-demand video and transcript, as well as DVD.

For complete program details, click here.

The University of Utah (U of U) is establishing a statewide network of academic and industry partners to advance semiconductor research, education and workforce development. continue reading »

A collaborative research project launched by the University of South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and OCIUS Technology, a leading innovator in maritime robotics and machine learning, has been recognized for its strong focus on student engagement and economic development. continue reading »

Jan. 24-25, 2024 | SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center

The UIDP Contracting Forum brings industry and academic contracting pros together for two days of candid, productive conversations on topics ranging from data issues to pre-negotiating IP terms, and from post-COVID work stoppages to early terminations.

This event is designed for seasoned contracting professionals. These sessions will not be recorded or available virtually, so plan to be there to get the most out of incredible discussions and networking with your peers.

See the agenda and session facilitators, and register today!

A detailed article on the Purdue University Polytechnic Institute’s partnership with construction technology firm Trimble, joining more than 20 other research institutions worldwide in the company’s consortium approach to university collaborations, appears in the November issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor. For subscription information, click here.

A simple vendor relationship grew into a headline-grabbing strategic collaboration with the potential for global reach when engineering heavyweight Purdue University entered into a five-year agreement with construction technology firm Trimble to establish a sponsored, branded learning lab within its Polytechnic Institute.

Hosted in the School of Construction Management Technology, the institute is now home to the Trimble Technology Lab, which ties the Boilermakers into a worldwide network of universities that have established similar Trimble footprints on their campuses, from Amherst, Massachusetts, to Seoul, South Korea.

Expected to open in early 2024, the lab will occupy a ground-floor, corner space at Purdue’s sparkling new engineering complex — the $140-million Dudley and Lambertus Halls, which comprise a combined 255,000 square feet and house state-of-the-art research labs, design studios, active learning spaces, student success offices, faculty offices, and recruiting and collaborative spaces.

Representatives of both Purdue and Trimble have expressed high hopes for the Trimble Technology Lab collaboration — which includes a multi-million-dollar in-kind donation of software licenses and hardware — and fully expect it to be renewed at the end of the inaugural five-year term. With multiple prongs — access to and training of engineering students, workforce development, faculty research and engagement — the collaboration is viewed not so much as a new beginning, but as an amplification of the success already enjoyed by two established leaders in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.

Highlights of the agreement include:

— Multi-million-dollar in-kind donation of substantial software licenses and hardware;

— Five-year term with semiannual progress reports and a renewal option;

— Annually, nearly 600 students are expected to cycle through the lab;

— Integration of Trimble technology into existing Purdue curricula;

— Trimble-branded lab on a ground-floor corner space at Dudley and Lambertus Halls;

— Multiple software licenses to Trimble programs donated to establish the lab;

— Donated hardware includes the Trimble® XR10 Hololens, a mixed reality tool for the construction industry, with a plan to donate additional equipment over the five years of the agreement;

— Lab support and training provided by Trimble’s regional resellers and distributors;

— Visiting Professionals Program hosted by Trimble for tech talks and product demos with faculty and students;

— Trimble technology available for use on campus projects such as renovations, project management and asset management;

— In the event of a leadership transition on the Purdue end of the agreement, Trimble to have critical input into the evaluation and vetting of the replacement.

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The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is partnering with Quantum Motion, a start-up from University College London (UCL), to accelerate the company’s development of silicon qubit chips for quantum computing. continue reading »