[Air-l] Industry, Academy

[Dr. Steve Eskow]

I have clearly walked into a long-standing argument whose dimensions I don't
understand.

Nevertheless. . .

Reid Cornwell says:
 

<<I have interviewed and evaluated industrial scientists for decades.
Moderate
deep learning, creativity and a real world vision is the sought after
commodity. This is directly opposite of the institutional hiring and
research policies of the Universities.>>

The research universities of the U.S. hire scientists whose learning and
skill and vision is sought after by industry. Indeed, one of the problems
student report is that such faculty spend so much time consulting with
business andindustry that there time with students is limited.

I am close to the College of Engineering at the University of California at
Santa Barbara, and aware of the work its faculties of science are doing. I
haven't counted the Nobel Laureates on campus, or the days of consulting
they provide for industry. Shuji Nakamurea, the Director of UCSB's Center
for Solid State Lighting, has just returned from Finland where he received
an award for his work in that field--and a $1.3 million dollar prize.

<snip>

<<Also in industry the sharing of knowledge is the rule, in academia the
ownership of knowledge prevails. I know this is counter-intuitive
considering that Universities are centers of learning.>>

More counter-factual than counter-intuitive. University scientis share
freely, in articles and scholarly journals. The scientists employed in
corporate research centers--say, in drug research centers--do not share what
they learn: patents and other forms of protection seem to be the rule.
Sharing seems to be done only when such sharing is clearly in the best
interest of the company.

<<One only has to look at disciplinarity in Universities and the difficulty
of
establishing true cross-disciplinarity. You see the same thing happening in
this listserv conflict. Ie. "We own the knowledge" about the internet."
You're not an academic so you don't know anything.>>

Is it perhaps also "You're not iin industry so you don't know anything of
the real world"?

<<My views are particularly problematic because I'm a heretic in the "Temple
of Phud" and alien with my real world orientation.>>

I have yet to see or hear of a university rejecting an overture from a
corporation or an agency to co-sponsor research and development, and I would
appreciate evidence of such behavior.

"Interdisciplearity" has become something of a buzz word among those who are
not engaged in university work. What many universities have done is to
create "centers" and "institutes," e.g., "The Center for Solid State
Lighting and Display" at UCSB, which are truly interdiscipleary, while
retaining loose and permeable boundaries between the disciplines for
teaching and learning and the preparation of practitioners.

Steve Eskow