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Industry Participation Program

Industry and agency participation is critical to both the research and education efforts of ICES. When researchers and faculty interact in a multi-disciplinary environment, revolutionary ideas are generated that often provide our industry partners with competitive advantages over their competition. ICES benefits by the participation of our faculty and students in real-world problem solving and the new ideas created by working with real-world practitioners.

The organizational structure of ICES is designed to respond quickly to the needs of our industry partners. And our diverse research interests provide topical information in new developing areas of technology. We invite you to review the many ways by which your business may benefit through an association with ICES.

Industry involvement with ICES can be ad hoc or more formally through our Industrial Affiliates program. The means by which our company partners participate depends largely on their business strategy and the relationships that develop between our world-class faculty and the company. For specific information on the ICES Industry Participation Program, please contact Matt Sanfilippo at (412) 268-8859 or by e-mail at mattsanf@andrew.cmu.edu.

Benefits of Joining the Program

Capital
ICES is a member of the PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) program. Funding from the PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) is available through ICES to fund research and education projects that create competitive advantages and economic benefits for PA companies, regardless of size. Some matching funds are required to participate in PITA, which to date has funded more than 200 projects in partnership with more than 50 PA companies.

ICES actively seeks other sources of funding to support cutting-edge research that supports economic development initiatives in southwestern PA. For example, our work in embedded systems reliability, pervasive and context aware computing compliments initiatives such as the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse. Our work in the areas of tissue engineering, artificial organs and innovative drug delivery systems compliments the work of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative. In many instances, partner company research and development initiatives benefit by our ability to obtain these other sources of funding and our strategic partners are encouraged to participate in proposals for large federal research grants.

People
The goal of ICES is to develop the leaders of tomorrow by combining the academic excellence of Carnegie Mellon and multi-disciplinary research experiences with real world applications. To do this, ICES seeks to connect people to people and people to the world through the efficient use of information technology in various research thrusts. ICES faculty and staff focus on the transfer of knowledge from academia to the real world, innovation, process/product enhancement, customization and cost reduction practices.

The ICES Industry Participation Program stresses the establishment of working relationships between our faculty members and both technical and managerial persons within our partner companies. These relationships result in research projects that generally produce tangible results within a 12-month time frame.

ICES provides work force training in areas of engineering design, embedded and reliable information systems, social and organizational systems security, modeling and simulation, wearable computing and the use of sensor technology in various endeavors - including but not limited to civil infrastructure, bioengineering and computer assisted surgery.

Education
ICES sponsors undergraduate and graduate level courses through the College of Engineering (CIT). These courses are designed to emphasize the importance of engineering design concepts in an increasingly complex world. Not only have new patents have been generated as a result of ICES sponsored course work, but the experience also provides an excellent opportunity for industry partners to observe and recruit our students.

Industry partners are encouraged to participate in courses such as 39-605/606 - a two semester product design class where industrial participants provide product or process improvement ideas for students to work on. Industry participants can provide lecture material and work directly with teams of students who chose to undertake their particular project.

Other courses include rapid design and prototyping, which deal with rapid prototyping, manufacture, and applications of products (39-245) including new generations of wearable computers (39-648). Industry participation is also encouraged in the development of these courses.

Networking
ICES faculty members are active in various professional organizations and work collaboratively with other centers and institutes at Carnegie Mellon as well as faculty members at other universities. ICES is currently working on projects with universities including: Lehigh University; Duquesne University; University of Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania State University; and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. ICES is known for its ability to bring together diverse groups and individuals who share common interests in the design, operation, evaluation, and control of complex systems. Pursuing a working relationship with ICES creates networking opportunities with our industry and agency partners, collaborating universities and economic development organizations in southwestern PA.

Space
ICES can also provide on-campus office space for strategic industry partners. A limited amount of office space is available in Hamburg Hall and strategic industry partners share services provided by the ICES office staff. This on-campus presence creates additional networking opportunities by offering access to the many resources available at Carnegie Mellon. Representatives from Bombardier Transportation Systems and Emerson currently occupy offices at ICES. These individuals interact routinely with faculty members and offer strategic input on the direction of ICES.