Industry and academia form symbiotic relationship
A companion piece to "The future of engineering," celebrating T&MW's 25th anniversary.
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2006 2:00:00 AM
COMPLETE ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE:
-The future of engineering
-Where are the women?
-Is engineering a profession?
-Industry and academia form symbiotic relationship
-The engineers of K–12
READ OTHER SEPTEMBER ARTICLES:
Contents, September 2006
Universities may be providing industry with the engineers of tomorrow as well as the basic R&D that will ultimately evolve into marketable products. But the industry/academia relationship isn't a one-way street.
Daniel Mak, education program manager at Agilent Technologies, said his company works to “prepare today's students to be ready to face the real world by providing the opportunity for hands-on experience.”
The test industry works at two levels. According to product manager Mark Cejer at Keithley, the company will furnish basic instruments for undergraduate courses. But at the graduate level, universities have fabs and other advanced facilities and may need more sophisticated instrumentation, such as semiconductor characterization equipment.
Mak sees a similar division of the education market but adds that graduate-level labs look for software as well, particularly EDA tools.
Universities can provide test vendors with a look at emerging technologies so the vendors can adapt. Cejer cited nanotechnology as an example. “A lot of the work gets done by the students who aren't EEs. They don't necessarily want to be instrumentation experts.”
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Mark Cejer |
To help universities apply Keithley's semiconductor characterization system to emerging nanotechnology research, Cejer explained, “We developed a whole new user interface we call a nanotech toolkit.”
Concluded Mak, “We look beyond selling instruments and toward a total education solution. We work interactively with a professor to develop a curriculum, providing application notes and creating lab exercises. We let the professor focus on teaching, not developing lab programs.”
Complete anniversary coverage:
-The future of engineering
-Where are the women?
-Is engineering a profession?
-Industry and academia form symbiotic relationship
-The engineers of K-12
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