NSF: US & China Collaboration
Participants Richard Ziolkowski, University of Arizona Ophir Frieder, Georgetown Jason Hong, CMU James Landay, University of Washington Ruixin Yang, George Mason University Peter Chen, CMU Ning An, Oracle Douglas Fisher, Vanderbilt
Our Discussion Topics Barriers Location Finding Connections Non-controversial Issues Chinese view of stability Establishing World Lab
Barriers IP / export control (HPC, encryption) Wolf Amendment limiting use of US funds Social graph between US and China Need framework for cross cultural studies Low payment for interns from US
Location Beijing vs. Shanghai vs. Other Areas Would Westerners be willing to live in other areas? Tradeoff is competing with other universities Lots of potential impact in outlying areas Possible model: collaborate with other universities thru Beijing connection
Find Connections High profile conferences in China SIGIR, SIGMOD, CSCW, Ubicomp Maybe leverage these for US researchers to visit other universities, have a local chair help arrange visits Opportunities for US students to meet Chinese students Pairing up US and Chinese student volunteers Postdocs and visitors China Scholarship Council
Non-controversial Issues China Not related to organizing people Not questioning legitimcy of Communist Party US Avoid defense related projects Avoid possible concerns from Congress Jobs being shipped overseas Need to be clear win-win for US and Chinas Good win-win areas Education, health, environment Work with Chinese government to get endorsement
Chinese View of Stability Long term view (5k years) Huge desire in Chinese society for stability Framing sustainability as stability
Establishing World Lab Central vs. Distributed vs. Hybrid Few core centers with satellites Europe: the network of centers of excellence Danger of losing focus High travel cost Virtual organizations Distributed temporally Handling time zones well Re-hydration of contexts and tasks “Beyond Being There”
Healthcare They need overhaul of healthcare system Aging population: taking care of the elder people Long-term care situation
Environments Chinese wanting American dream of middle class Friends But would consume a great deal of resources Developing safe nuclear plants Buildings in China being re-built for long-term
Education MIT open courses is well received in China Deliver education to rural areas via mobile phones 7 million migrant workers at Beijing only have access to low quality education Students swap their skill sets Chinese students (math & sciences) and US students (creativity & imaginations) Parents can help here too