Please join us for an IDETC-wide session on Monday August 19 at 6 PM (California Ballroom B) prior to the opening reception in which Professors Sridhar Kota and Michael McCarthy will engage in a forum to discuss the imperative for Investing in a Hardware Innovation Ecosystem for the United States. During the forum, audience members are encouraged to share experiences in the following areas:
- What hardware products or process technologies have been developed at a U.S. university and successfully scaled in the U.S. in the past 15 years? What factors enabled such successful technology development?
- What hardware products or process technologies were initially developed at a U.S. university and successfully scaled outside the U.S. in the past 15 years? What factors have enabled offshoring innovation and production?
- What are the impediments to successful hardware start-ups and scale-ups in the U.S.?
- What are your ideas to revolutionize engineering education and research at U.S. universities to ensure a return on investment of taxpayer dollars that fund basic research?
This interaction will lay the ground work for Prof. Kota’s ongoing efforts with MForesight to support efforts in Washington DC to advance engineering and manufacturing in the US.
Investing in a Hardware Innovation Ecosystem for the United States
Speaker: Sridhar Kota, Professor, University of Michigan and Executive Director of MForesight
Moderator: J. Michael McCarthy, Professor, University of California, Irvine
"Being the best in the world in science is critical—but it's not sufficient to ensure success in the global economy. We need to make significant long-term investments in translational research to build an engineering infrastructure that mirrors our science infrastructure to establish and lead the industries of the future. The onus is on us." — Sridhar Kota
After decades of shifting production offshore to reduce labor costs, fundamental engineering skills and manufacturing know-how have been lost and the ability to manufacture new advanced technology products is constrained. US universities and government labs continue to generate world-leading expertise, discoveries and inventions. Yet many US-based inventions either languish in university technology transfer offices or are scaled overseas to leverage technical skills and proximity to suppliers, manufacturers, markets, and investments. The concern is that the US continues to create knowledge but not national wealth or security.