Role of Industrial Consortia in Education and Research

A Google search will reveal the existence of quite a few influential industrial consortia further the cause of research and education in fields identified by them. Almost all of them are run jointly by people from industry and prominent educational and research institutions. You can find a list of them compiled here. I have listed only the ones relevant to electronics and computer industries. I have found that not many students are aware of these consortia and that should not be the case. Some of these are highly active and they contribute a lot to research, development of technology and education. Consortia like Accellera Systems Intiative have contributed to a number of IEEE standards. Some of these can be downloaded for free from its website. The Semiconductor Research Association plays an important role in promoting research and education in the field of semiconductors. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors has played an immense role in identifying challenges before the semiconductor industry- from design to manufacturing, to testing and validation. Many of these associations also offer scholarships and fellowships for students and research grants for faculty members. Their publications provide a lot of insight regarding the challenges at present and of the future. These publications may not always have a lot of in depth research material, the sort of which most graduate students are accustomed to, but they successfully paint the bigger picture. Paying attention to such facts can help in keeping research relevant to industry where necessary. Besides, it also helps in learning about the actual real world problems and the challenges involved in translating research into technology that can be scaled up and widely used. Sometimes, problems are considered solved in academic research but such solutions never make it to the market, even if of relevance, because their translation to scalable technology still remains an open problem.