Partnerships with Industry Dr. Susan Williams Georgia Southern University SIGCSE 2009

 Why collaborate?  Bring together different perspectives and skills  Achieve synergistic outcomes  Improve research productivity  Typical collaborations  Your colleagues and students  Interdisciplinary  Across academic institutions  With research labs

 Partnership between Georgia Southern University and NCR Corporation to develop next generation of one of NCR’s point-of-sale systems  How it began  Why Georgia Southern???  Role of new College of IT  Role of Intellectual Capital Partnership Program (ICAPP)  My role

 NCR donated the IP (source code and hardware)  More than one million lines of code  Valued by Ernst & Young at $2.7 million  GSU assumed responsibility for software development  Migration to touch screen hardware  New functionality and features  Translation to Chinese and other foreign languages  Customizations for large clients (US Customs and Border Patrol, Tim Horton’s Donuts, Amtrak)

 GSU has a royalty arrangement with NCR which generates a revenue stream as new licenses are sold  Customizations for large clients are negotiated on a cost-plus basis  ICAPP continues to invest in the project

 Benefits to the company  Maintain and enhance (at no R&D cost) a product that would otherwise have been shelved  Tax write-off for donation  Benefits to academic programs and institution  Reputation and credibility  Enhanced relationships with employers  Demonstrated “proof of concept” for university outsourcing

 Benefits to the faculty/project manager  Access to industry problems, code, data, & users  Benefits to students  Real-world work experience while still in school  Employment opportunities with the company after graduation

 Benefits to the region  Led to several other smaller partnerships with regional companies  Police Agency Data Network  CogentWare (Business Intelligence)  Morris Multimedia  ColorMaria  And others  IT workforce development in rural Georgia

 Funding source for start-up  Legal support/expertise  Physical space and furnishings  Administrative support  Training  Initial knowledge transfer from NCR  Ongoing (with students)  Software and hardware to support development  Source code repository and configuration management  Server(s)  Reference library

 A full-time technical “guru” – probably not a faculty member  An “executive sponsor” who can solve the non- technical problems  Pool of capable students (across disciplines)  A lot of patience and determination  Universities are often not accustomed to “profit- center” initiatives  You must “think outside the box”

 Secure top-level support before you begin (in writing if you can)  Allow ample time to process legal contracts and set up revenue accounts  Work with HR and Budget offices to figure out how to do what (they will tell you) “can’t be done”  Recognize need for (and secure) administrative support

 Be honest with yourself about your capabilities, those of your students, and those of your department/university  Develop a rigorous training program  Set high standards for performance and stick to them  Hire the right students (and fire those who don’t perform)

 Make sure that your efforts will be recognized as “valuable contributions” in tenure & promotion decisions  Continue scholarly research if possible  Toot your own horn!  Know when to hand it off to someone else