Challenges/Issues In A Industry Academic Collaboration

Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Challenges in an Industry-Academic Collaboration Abstract: Studies have shown the benefits of industry-academic collaborations for the students, faculty and industry partners. However, there are many challenges in establishing such collaborations that if not addressed, may result to either the failure of such collaboration or an unpleasant experience for parties involved. In this paper, the authors first summarize some of the advantages of such collaborations as it is reflected by their experience and in literature survey. This is followed by identifying a series of challenges they may arise. Some of the challenges mentioned in this paper may be familiar to experienced collaborators, and hence this paper is intended for audiences who are new to collaboration or who intend to pursue such collaborations in the future. In this paper, the authors mainly concentrate on the issues that are more relevant to collaborations in the area of computing and software engineering. Introduction Over the past decade there have been several studies conducted on the benefits of Industry-Academic Collaboration. Such collaborations are accepted to be of mutual benefit to stakeholders in both organizations. In an academic institution, there are numerous benefits for the students, and the faculty involved in these collaborations. The following provides a sample of these benefits6,7,8: Potential Benefit to Students Non-curricular learning. Students who work on collaboration projects are expected to learn industry practice and new technology, which may not be part of the curriculum. This enables such students to face unfamiliar situations with confidence and courage. Scholarships and stipends. With graduate tuitions on the rise all over the country, students are in more need of research assistantships than ever. The industry collaboration provides the funding for academic research, which in turn helps provide scholarship for the students in the form of either stipends or tuition waivers. Experience working on real-world projects and settings. Students are expected to work on projects throughout their curriculum, more so in technological programs. But most often, students end up working on small projects in small-scale world, and typically on their own or with one additional person. When such students graduate and are employed by the industry, they are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project that they have to work with. The industry-academic collaboration provides an opportunity for the students to work on the large-scale projects, and large group of people, which is closer to what they are expected to face after graduation. In addition, industry projects, typically are associated with hard deadlines, students who worked on these projects learn to adhere to these deadline. Increase job prospects after graduation. A student who has worked on collaboration projects often are familiar with industry culture, appreciates quality and are often willing to learn new things to keep abreast of the technological and environmental