Commercial Marketplace Research Articles

BUILDING ENDURING UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS: SHAPING AND DEPLOYING A FUNDING WHIRLPOOL IS TIME WELL SPENT.

Sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation, this paper investigates specific strategies utilized by faculty and administrators to build enduring research partnerships with for-profit firms. Following the literature and utilizing theories of professionalization, we focus on interpersonal relationships as important well springs of funding opportunities and explore the strategies (if any) faculty utilize to maintain and extend their autonomy as well as the strategies (if any) administrators use to manage faculty's relationships with firms. We conducted lengthy, probing in person interviews of 49 faculty and administrators and discovered their efforts to sustain research funding by developing complex webs of connections that provide access to individuals, knowledge, know-how, materials, equipment, and resources. These exchanges disregard any academic boundaries that might exist, spanning the traditional research realms of federal agencies, corporate foundations, and philanthropic institutions, and stretching to embrace the commercial marketplace with its venture capitalists, production managers, and corporate buyers. Our findings suggest that both faculty and administrators utilize strategies to build and leverage funding whirlpools to sustain research groups and industrial partnerships. As predicted by theories of professionalization, faculty develop webs of relationships that diminish administrative control and administrators create connections that divert faculty activities to benefit the institution. This paper describes the existence, formation, and strength of

8.4.4 The Discovery Based Development Approach: A Process Aberration Or A Better Way To Develop Complex Applications?

ABSTRACTThe world of complex software systems has been marred by a less than stellar track record. These systems have largely been the domain of civil or military government procurement, as opposed to commercial industry, since the former institutions can absorb not only the tremendous initial costs and long development time, but also the intrinsically higher risk of initial failure. However, the commercial world is beginning to move quickly toward much more sophisticated applications, and evidence suggests similar or worse rates of failures as complexity is increased.One such complex system has been under development for five years at M&DS. In early 1998, it was headed for a classic default of specified capabilities on all major fronts: runtime performance, functional stability and quality. This paper examines the circumstances that led to this state, and the success that has since been achieved. Most important is not the fact that a recovery had been accomplished, but rather how a new approach, called out in this paper as Discovery Based Development, was instituted to repair the damage and reputation in weeks instead of months or years. Armed with this technique, and applied earlier in the normal incremental or spiral developments that typify the commercial marketplace, a much higher success rate is quite possible for complex systems.

Technology roll lessons learned on embedded avionics platforms

Open system architectures based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) building block components offer the ability to leverage the latest technology into fielded products while minimizing the impact to the operational flight software, typically the most costly component of an avionics development or upgrade. Our team has developed a layered hardware and software approach based on industry standard hardware and software interfaces to abstract the application (operational) software developers from the underlying technology rolls to the hardware and operating system software that naturally occur as part of the commercial marketplace, A technology roll is defined as the replacement of a current product with a subsequent generation of a product from the same product family. In this article, we describe the components and the layered architecture of our open system architecture approach. We discuss specific system, hardware, and software technology insertions that incorporate the latest available technology and how these changes have been abstracted from the application software. The article concludes by discussing lessons Learned from the use of these common components and corresponding technology rolls across various platforms.

Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940

Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940. By Jane S. Becker. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Pp. xviii, 331. $55.00 cloth, $18.95 paper) Selling Tradition adds to the critical examination of culture and folklore by asking is tradition? in a way that directs the reader to the intertwining of and modernity, two categories often considered to be in opposition. From the outset it is clear that Jane Becker is not going to let such a dichotomy go unexamined. very nature of cultural forms defined as and folk, she writes, raises questions about the process by which those forms have evolved, the new meanings they embody in historical contexts so different from those of their inception, and the implications of their new status and interpretation for members of the cultures and communities they presumably represent (3). Becker's book, as this passage indicates, can be situated among other recent studies of global cultures that are teaching us that it is no longer possible to consider or traditional as categories outside of modern, or to think of crafts as having little relationship to a field of production defined by the commercial marketplace. Becker's particular site of inquiry concerns what one could argue is the quintessential culture of the United States-central Appalachia and its handicrafts. In particular, she takes the period between 1930 and 1940, the heyday of the handicraft revival, to examine the relation among the national marketplace for goods, the definition of tradition, and the justifications for the creation of what amounted to an industry of craft production in the mountains. Along the way the reader is presented with a fascinating, grounded history of the emergence of romantic attraction to the idea of preindustrial life and culture, the relation of those views to arguments about national identity, and attempts to reform and revitalize the economically underdeveloped mountains without losing their particular traditional culture. What makes Selling Tradition most interesting, in my view, is that Becker refuses to treat this history as simply one of exploitation. Although the products of the craft industry were driven by the commercial market and therefore often had little relationship to traditional styles or modes of production, and conditions of labor were difficult, Becker shows the mountain producers of handicrafts-primarily women-participating in the marketplace as a way to earn money and support families that were having trouble surviving economically in depression-era Appalachia. The book begins with a good discussion of the notion of in America, and its ties to ideas of and authenticity in the larger context of national identity and industrial anxiety. Her critical overview of models for analyzing folk culture in a modern world is astute. Defining tradition as a symbolic construction, Becker argues that we must concentrate, therefore, on the contexts in which particular traditions and folk groups were constructed, unraveling their specific histories (39). Besides setting up her own study, the chapter also makes for a useful introduction to the history of the emergence of the folk/modern dichotomy in the United States, essential to a critical folkloristic perspective. …

Tool Support for Distributed Real-Time Software

Tool Support for Distributed Real-Time Software

Heterostructure-based high-speed/high-frequency electronic circuit applications

With the growth of wireless and lightwave technologies, heterostructure electronic devices are commodity items in the commercial marketplace [Browne J. Power-amplifier MMICs drive commercial circuits. Microwaves & RF, 1998. p. 116–24.]. In particular, HBTs are an attractive device for handset power amplifiers at 900 MHz and 1.9 GHz for CDMA applications [Lum E. GaAs technology rides the wireless wave. Proceedings of the 1997 GaAs IC Symposium, 1997. p. 11–13; “Rockwell Ramps Up”. Compound Semiconductor, May/June 1997.]. At higher frequencies, both HBTs and p-HEMTs are expected to dominate the marketplace. For high-speed lightwave circuit applications, heterostructure based products on the market for OC-48 (2.5 Gb/s) and OC-192 (10 Gb/s) are emerging [http://www.nb.rockwell.com/platforms/network_access/nahome.html#5.; http://www.nortel.com/technology/opto/receivers/ptav2.html.]. Chips that operate at 40 Gb/ have been demonstrated in a number of research laboratories [Zampardi PJ, Pierson RL, Runge K, Yu R, Beccue SM, Yu J, Wang KC. hybrid digital/microwave HBTs for >30 Gb/s optical communications. IEDM Technical Digest, 1995. p. 803–6; Swahn T, Lewin T, Mokhtari M, Tenhunen H, Walden R, Stanchina W. 40 Gb/s 3 Volt InP HBT ICs for a fiber optic demonstrator system. Proceedings of the 1996 GaAs IC Symposium, 1996. p. 125–8; Suzuki H, Watanabe K, Ishikawa K, Masuda H, Ouchi K, Tanoue T, Takeyari R. InP/InGaAs HBT ICs for 40 Gbit/s optical transmission systems. Proceedings of the 1997 GaAs IC Symposium, 1997. p. 215–8]. In addition to these two markets, another area where heterostructure devices are having significant impact is for data conversion [Walden RH. Analog-to digital convertor technology comparison. Proceedings of the 1994 GaAs IC Symposium, 1994. p. 217–9; Poulton K, Knudsen K, Corcoran J, Wang KC, Nubling RB, Chang M-CF, Asbeck PM, Huang RT. A 6-b, 4 GSa/s GaAs HBT ADC. IEEE J Solid-State Circuits 1995;30:1109–18; Nary K, Nubling R, Beccue S, Colleran W, Penney J, Wang KC. An 8-bit, 2 gigasample per second analog to digital converter. Proceedings of the 1995 GaAs IC Symposium, 1995. p. 303–6.]. In this paper, we will discuss the present and future trends of heterostructure device applications to these areas.

Fatty acids for myocardial imaging

Radioiodinated free fatty acids are tracers that can be used to assess both myocardial perfusion and metabolism. There have been several fatty acids and structurally modified fatty acids studied since Evans' initial report of radiolabeled I-123 oleic acid in 1965. The radiolabeling of a phenyl group added to the long chain fatty acids in the omega-terminal position opposite the carboxyl terminal group prevents nonspecific deiodination and the rapid release of free iodine as the tracer undergoes beta-oxidation. The additional inclusion of a methyl or dimethyl group to the chain slows oxidation resulting in prolonged myocardial retention. The longer retention of the radiolabel permits longer image acquisitions more compatible with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, especially with single-detector imaging systems. Several protocols have been implemented using these compounds, particularly 15-(para-iodophenyl)-3-R,S-methyl pentadecanoic BMIPP, to detect abnormal fatty acid metabolism in ischemic heart disease as well as in nonischemic and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. Successful management of patients with ischemic cardiomyopathies depends on the accurate identification of hibernating myocardium. The studies covered in this review suggest that both IPPA and BMIPP, especially when combined with markers of myocardial perfusion, may be excellent tracers of viable and potentially functional myocardium. Future studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to confirm the results of these studies and to compare their efficacy with that of other available imaging modalities. Cost and distribution issues will have to be resolved for these metabolic tracers to compete in the commercial marketplace. Otherwise they will likely be available only on a limited basis for research use. As progress is made with these issues and with the development of newer imaging systems, the use of radioiodinated and fluorinated fatty acids is likely to be increasingly attractive.

Segmenting the commercial producer marketplace for agricultural inputs

A cluster analysis procedure was used to develop a market segmentation of U.S. crop and livestock farms with annual sales in excess of $100,000. The segments were developed based on the importance of six factors that producers evaluate when selecting input suppliers. The results indicate that four distinct segments exist: Convenience buyers, Balance buyers, Price buyers, and Performance buyers. Differences in preferences across these segments have important implications for the marketing strategies of agricultural input suppliers.

1 Ensuring Medical Device Industry Quality System Standards Compliance

AbstractSuccess in the highly competitive medical device industry demands developing the right device first, on time and within budget. International and country‐specific quality standards must be met to sell Class II (e.g. an external monitoring device) and III devices (e.g., a long‐term implantable device), devices containing software, as well as selected Class I devices (e.g., surgeon's gloves). This paper discusses how proven requirements management practices such as traceability, change management, user definable views into project data, simultaneous access to information and the use of electronic records can save time and money, while ensuring compliance as a side benefit. Focus is on quality standards having the greatest impact on the medical device commercial marketplace: FDA's Quality System Regulation, ISO 13485 Quality System Standard and the CE Mark for the European Economic Community.

Can Ultrafast Lasers Meet Industry Expectations?

Translating the success of ultrafast lasers as research tools into the commercial marketplace is anything but guaranteed. However, several promising applications are pushing the development of ultrafast lasers as industry tools.

Faculty and Administrators' Attitudes toward Potential Conflicts of Interest, Commitment, and Equity in University-Industry Relationships

In the 1940s the federal government began awarding grants and contracts for significant amounts of money to academic researchers who pursued paths of national as well as scholarly interest (Smith, 1990). During the post-World War II years, the conduct of research through federal sponsorship became a source of prestige and autonomy within the academic profession. In the mid-1970s the federal share of academic research funding began to decrease, and faculty and administrators began to look for other sources of funding. At the same time, business leaders voiced concern that governmental regulations, restrictions, and processes were impending their ability to compete in the global marketplace. In the 1980s the U.S. government responded by encouraging increased cooperation between universities and firms, allowing universities to hold patents on federally sponsored research and financing research projects in which universities and firms were both active participants (Campbell, 1995, 1997; Campbell & Slaughter, 1999; Slaughter & Rhoades, 1996). Although the academic and industrial sectors had worked together on a limited basis before 1980, over the past fifteen years, collaborative relationships have intensified, and increasing numbers of academics are seeking ways to position themselves close to the commercial marketplace. Ample literature has tracked this activity between academics and industry, particularly since the late 1970s (Blumenthal, Campbell, Anderson, Causino, & Louis, 1997; Blumenthal, Campbell, Causino, & Louis, 1996a, 1996b; Blumenthal, Epstein, & Maxwell, 1986; Blumenthal, Gluck, Louis, & Wise, 1986a, 1986b; Bowie, 1994; Braxton & Bayer, 1996; Dooris & Fairweather, 1994; Etzkowitz, 1983, 1990, 1992, 1993; Fairweather, 1988, 1989, 1993; Fassin, 1991; Feller, 1992; Hackett, 1990; Lambright & Rahm, 1992; Lee, 1994, 1995; Louis, Anderson, & Rosenberg, 1995; Louis, Blumenthal, Gluck, & Stoto, 1989; Rahm, 1994a, 1994b; Wood, 1992; Zuckerman, 1993). Those in favor of increased interaction suggest that, for the most part, faculty and administrators(1) approach industry-sponsored research as professionals who strive to maintain Mertonian norms such as rationality, impartiality, and objectivity rather than allow themselves to be influenced by the potential financial gains that might arise from their research. Their discussions focus on the benefits that arise out of university-industry relationships and suggest that most adverse impacts on institutions are anomalous and readily remedied (Bok, 1982; Geisler & Rubenstein, 1989; Peters & Fusfeld, 1982). Those more skeptical of this movement toward the market warn that the potential to generate revenue at personal and institutional levels has had a multifaceted, not always positive, impact on academe. For example, administrators are increasingly treating faculty in the same manner that industrial managers treat their employees and, as a result, faculty are losing ownership of their discoveries and autonomy over their professional lives (Dickson, 1984; Florig, 1986; Luton & Zinke, 1989; Rhoades & Slaughter, 1991a, 1991b; Slaughter, 1990; Slaughter & Rhoades, 1990). Although faculty involvement in collaborative activity is encouraged by federal sponsors and university leaders (Campbell, 1995, 1997), thus far there is neither a large body of university policy nor professional customs and norms that guide and shape entrepreneurial faculty behavior. Administrators, faculty, and business persons are in the process of establishing new entrepreneurial norms, and this provides a unique opportunity to study the reshaping of professional roles as well as the tensions and conflicts that surround such changes. Some tension between faculty and administrators has been accepted as an enduring part of academic life, but few studies have explored empirically the possibility that differences between the two groups may be amplified when industry enters into the picture. …

Parallel computing in the commercial marketplace: research and innovation at work

This is a good time for parallel computer development and research in both academia and industry. The performance improvements predicted by Moore's Law have proven to be quite accurate over many years. However, the doubling of processor performance every 18 months cannot keep up with the growing demand of many applications. The performance of database applications has been doubling every nine to ten months. At last, parallel computer technology has come to play an important role in the commercial marketplace. Multiprocessing has been an active research area for almost 40 years and commercial parallel computers have been available for more than 35 years. After getting off to a slow start, this area has now taken off. Shared memory multiprocessors have dominated this development. This is an area that has sprung out of tireless research and numerous published breakthrough results. The article analyzes some of the reasons for the sudden acceptance of the relatively old parallel computing field, outlines the key properties of a successful parallel computer of the 1990's, and identifies some important research areas and key technologies for the future.

Raising the intelligence stakes: Corporate information warfare and strategic surprise

In war as in business, surprise can be a powerful strategic weapon. This article draws parallels between military and business planning, and explores the role of strategic intelligence in achieving and preempting surprise in the commercial marketplace. Sherman Kent (1949) defined strategic intelligence as the “kind of knowledge a state must possess regarding other states in order to assure itself that its causes will not suffer nor its undertakings fail because its statesmen and soldiers plan and act in ignorance.” With one or two word changes (business/organization for state; executives/managers for statesmen/soldiers), this definition could apply equally well to the world of business. In highly competitive global markets, ignorance of other players' actions or of developments in the wider business environment can prove costly. The chances of achieving, and/or being subjected to, strategic surprise have increased correlatively with the growth of networked, multinational organizations and electronic commerce. In an age of information warfare, strategic surprise has become virtually synonymous with technological surprise, thereby putting a premium on high-grade intelligence and threat assessment. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Endgame in Aerospace: A Disaster Waiting to Happen?

In the golden years of the 1980s, 12,000 Southern California firms were linked to the aerospace/defense market. Since 1989, the year when the Berlin Wall fell, Southern California lost 175,000 (44.7%) of its high-tech jobs. The aerospace/defense industry is faced with, arguably, the biggest downturn since the end of World War II. The industry is expected to remain in a state of flux until the year 2000, bottoming out in 1996–1997. Prime contractors and firms that provide complete sub-assemblies are considered first and second tier firms. Firms that provide less than complete sub-assemblies are considered third tier suppliers and firms that provide “piece materials,” e.g. rivets, screws, fiberglass ducting, etc. are considered fourth tier suppliers. Third and four tier firms, comprised largely of small subcontractors, will be most at risk. Many have failed, while others in search of a more stable business climate will shift their focus entirely on commercial products and serves. The future viability of many third and fourth tier firms will be determined in large measure by how well they adapt to their new commercial marketplace. Empirical investigations of the effects and reaction to declining aerospace/defense industry on the firms, are virtually non existent. This study identifies the strategic thrusts third and four tier suppliers are pursuing to offset the industry decline and assesses how that fits with theory, and second, it assesses how successful the third and fourth tier suppliers are in coping with the biggest downturn in the aerospace/defense industry since the end of World War II.

The endgame in aerospace: A disaster waiting to happen?

In the golden years of the 1980s, 12,000 Southern California firms were linked to the aerospace/defense market. Since 1989, the year when the Berlin Wall fell, Southern California lost 175,000 (44.7%) of its high-tech jobs. The aerospace/defense industry is faced with, arguably, the biggest downturn since the end of World War II. The industry is expected to remain in a state of flux until the year 2000, bottoming out in 1996–1997. Prime contractors and firms that provide complete sub-assemblies are considered first and second tier firms. Firms that provide less than complete sub-assemblies are considered third tier suppliers and firms that provide “piece materials,” e.g. rivets, screws, fiberglass ducting, etc. are considered fourth tier suppliers. Third and four tier firms, comprised largely of small subcontractors, will be most at risk. Many have failed, while others in search of a more stable business climate will shift their focus entirely on commercial products and serves. The future viability of many third and fourth tier firms will be determined in large measure by how well they adapt to their new commercial marketplace. Empirical investigations of the effects and reaction to declining aerospace/defense industry on the firms, are virtually non existent. This study identifies the strategic thrusts third and four tier suppliers are pursuing to offset the industry decline and assesses how that fits with theory, and second, it assesses how successful the third and fourth tier suppliers are in coping with the biggest downturn in the aerospace/defense industry since the end of World War II.

Design of cryogenic electronics packaging for commercial production

Laboratory cryogenic electronic systems typically contain many faults including vacuum leaks, cooling capacity inadequacies and high non-device heat loads. The inefficiencies in these systems are typically overcome by brute force, including active vacuum pumping, liquid cryogen cooling and so forth. Many otherwise viable electronic systems fail to gain market acceptance due to ancillary issues such as vacuum life and cryogenic packaging. An inefficient or unreliable design will not gain market acceptance in today's competitive commercial marketplace. This paper presents some of the real-world problems associated with commercial cryogenic packaging, and offers design strategies to overcome these problems.

Comparing job-management systems: the user's perspective

The goal of job-management systems is to efficiently manage the distributed computing power of workstations, servers, and supercomputers. Effectively controlling these resources according to site-defined policies requires robustness, configurability, and allocation and scheduling mechanisms to maximize job throughput. There are now many highly functional job-management software packages in both the commercial marketplace and public domain. This comparison of job-management systems has highlighted the degrees to which these products fulfil end-user requirements. While all are highly functional, the user must decide whether ease of use is a more critical requirement than the extended functionality and flexibility found in the more complex systems. The relative costs of acquiring, installing, configuring, maintaining, and supporting these products are also important selection criteria that have merely been implied in this study and would be interesting considerations in future comparisons.

The Spherical Tokamak Path to Fusion Power

The low-aspect-ratio tokamak or spherical torus (ST) approach offers the two key elements needed to enable magnetic confinement fusion to make the transition from a government-funded research program to the commercial marketplace: a low-cost, low-power, small-size market entry vehicle and a strong economy of scale in larger devices. Within the ST concept, a very small device (A = 1.4, major radius ~1 m, similar size to the DIII-D tokamak) could be built that would produce ~800 MW(thermal), 200 MW(net electric) and would have a gain, defined as QPLANT = (gross electric power/recirculating power), of ~2. Such a device would have all the operating systems and features of a power plant and would therefore be acceptable as a pilot plant, even though the cost of electricity would not be competitive. The ratio of fusion power to copper toroidal field (TF) coil dissipation rises quickly with device size (like R3 to R4, depending on what is held constant) and can lead to 4-GW(thermal) power plants with QPLANT = 4 to 5 but which remain a factor of 3 smaller than superconducting tokamak power plants. Large ST power plants might be able to burn the advanced fuel D-He3 if the copper TF coil is replaced by a superconducting TF coil and suitable shield. These elements of a commercialization strategy are of particular importance to the U.S. fusion program in which any initial nongovernment financial participation demands a low-cost entry vehicle.The ability to pursue this line of fusion development requires certain advances and demonstrations that are probable. Stability calculations support a specific advantage of low aspect ratio in high beta that would allow simultaneously βT ~ 60% and 90% bootstrap current fraction (Ip ~ 15 MA, κ = 3). Steady-state current drive requirements are then manageable. The high beta capability means the fusion power density can be so high that neutron wall loading at the blanket, rather than plasma physics, becomes the critical design restriction.

Future directions in Ada—distributed execution and heterogeneous language interoperability toolsets

While the Ada community has seen and embraced the development of Ada 95 [1], with its enhanced object oriented features and various annexes, much of the rest of the commercial world continues to ignore Ada as a viable tool for software system building. Efforts have been ongoing for some time to provide rationale showing the superiority of Ada 95 over other choices such as C and C++, but with limited success in the commercial marketplace. In this paper, we put forward the idea that the Ada community should focus on: 1) interoperability with components built in other languages, and 2) convenient, easy to use toolsets for composing distributed systems from heterogeneous language components.

Forum on the future of academic medicine: Session II--Finances and culture.

The second meeting of the Forum on the Future of Academic Medicine in March 1997 was devoted to two issues. In a changing and increasingly competitive health care marketplace, (1) how do academic medical centers (i.e., medical schools and their associated teaching hospitals) fund their complex activities and manage their resources; and (2) what issues arise regarding the multiple missions, values, and cultures of academic medical centers (AMCs)? Regarding the first issue, one speaker made clear that medical schools must more closely link their financial statements with their strategic plans, and must find ways to more accurately gauge their financial health. Discussion of various aspects of this task included the need for schools to formulate business strategies; there was general agreement that academic medicine needs to have a better grasp of its enterprise and how much its components cost. Regarding the culture of academic medicine, participants debated the degree to which it must be adapted to recognize the new market-driven environment. More than one speaker stated that culture is a major obstacle to change. The lively discussions and presentations, detailed in this article, make clear that no one has much certainty about how AMCs-particularly medical schools-should be adapted to operate in a more commercial marketplace and what future role government should assume in this transformation. More than one statement was made that the AMC culture would be hard to change, and one speaker disagreed that AMCs' salvation would be found in adopting the principles of private business. The group's reporter closes this article by reflecting on several issues raised in the meeting, and stating that academic medicine is moving into a period when demands for rewriting its social contract will increase.