ICSE2004 Proc. 2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

University- Industry Partnership in Microengineeringand Nanoelectronic in Malaysia

Zainal Aripin Zakariah, Fellow IEM, Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis, SMIEEE and Syuhaini AbRahman

Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN)Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

43600 Bangi Selangor

Abstract - A collaborative research programinvolves teams of researchers workingclosely in partnership with community andindustry on a major research project. Inthis paper we discuss issues on developinguniversity-industry partnership, a newmodel for university and what we aim for inuniversity-industry partnership inmicroengineering and nanoelectronics.Survey has been done to determine theexisting partnership and to determine theissues that arise while developing thispartnership.

I. INTRODUCTION

Collaboration can be defined as any long term,explicit agreement among two or moreagencies. While research collaboration can bedefined as partnership in which bothorganizations share their resources in order toachieve certain strategic objectives [1]. Therelationship between university and industryhas been transformed over the past threedecades.Nanotechnology, the branch of scienceresponsible for bringing people from differentdisciplines to interact, started more than twentyyears ago when atoms were first arranged in aubiquitous manner. Nanotechnology is a termused to describe any system less than 100nanometer (nm) or a billionth of a meter.Globally, nanotechnology is now maturingtowards greater specialization anddifferentiation as other players are followingsuit. While, Microelectronic can be defined astechnology of constructing and utilizingcomplex electronic circuits and devices inextremely small packages by using integratedcircuit manufacturing techniques[2]. Now,

Malaysia is the second largest exporter ofmicroelectronics semiconductor chips in theworld [3].

II. NANOTECHNOLOGY IN MALAYSIA

In Malaysia Nanotechnology is categorizedunder Strategic Research (SR) ofIntensification of Priority Research Areas(IRPA) program in the Eight Malaysia Plan(2001-2005) funded by Ministry of Science,Technology and Environment (MOSTE). Abudget of RM1 billion (USD 263 million) wasallocated for IRPA in the Eight MalaysianPlan.

The areas of Nanoscience Researchinclude Nanophotonics, Nanobiosystems,Nanoelectronics, Nanostructured Materials andNanometrology. Its short term strategy is to:

- Identify researchers in various areas ofnanoscience with specific expertise

- Upgrade and equip NanoscienceLaboratories and the state-of-the-artfacilities

- Prepare a comprehensive humanresources development program fortraining nanoscientist

And its long term strategy is to:- Nurture a nanoscience research culture

among researchers- Develop world class National

Nanoscience Lab in Malaysia- Produce renown scientist

III. UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY

The relationship is significantly conditioned bydifferences in the objectives and compositionof the university sector and the private sector.Universities are institutions of higher learning

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and research. There are homogeneous in theiressential mission of education, training andresearch and usually lay claim to the higherpurpose of serving the public good. However,the university sector is heterogeneous in termsof the size of institutions and composition ofstaff. Each academic department is a decisioncentre for much of its work programme.

The contemporary private sector isregionalist and internationalist. But, manymajor firms are now multinationals. Theprivate sector has become knowledge andexpertise intensive as distinct from experienceintensive. Enterprises acquire knowledge andexpertise by recruitment and place a greaterpremium in them than on experience in the job.The private sector draws on universities fortheir stock of educated and trained personnel.

Universities and industries aretraditionally established for differentachievements. In this competitive age, theroles of both establishments have to beadjusted for optimal operation and return ofinvestment. Universities have to maximize theinvestments and move on to be moreproductive and generate income from theavailable resources like expensive capitalequipment and expertise.

On the other hand, the industries haveto reduce cost by using available resources inthe universities. In addition, information onmarket needs can be use to the universityplanning. Collaboration and informationsharing between university and industry willcertainly benefit the country.

IV. TYPES OF PARTNERSHIP

For economical growth, it is important todevelop partnership between university andindustry. A few types of partnership betweenuniversity and industry are scholarships,internships, career days, workshops, research,mentoring, donations and others.Our study will concentrate on research anddevelopment partnership

V. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Most of the significant deepening of therelationship between university and industry is

in research and development. The privatesector has become active in contract financingor research, has located itself in universityscience and technology parks, has jointventured spin-off companies and has engagedin other kinds of collaboration withuniversities aimed at commercializing theresults of academic research.

Universities has become more activein seeking pecuniary benefit from theirresearch capacity and output by commercializeutilization of intellectual property rights and byengaging in commissioned research andconsultancies. Figure 1 shows traditional linksbetween university, industry and government.

Much of new product development isbased on science and technology research.Therefore, early and exclusive access toresearch findings can be quite important to anenterprise's competitiveness. In almost everyfield of applied science and technology, onewould find large companies which maintaintheir own research laboratories. However,because most companies cannot afford thecapital costs and recurrent costs of their ownlaboratories, much of the private sector mustturn to the university.

The commercial development of newproducts is not determined solely by scienceand technology. Potential product demand is acritical consideration. The private sector canturn to university for this kind of non- scienceand technology research. The typology ofuniversity/industry research partnership isshown on Table 1.

Type of DescriptionPartnershipGeneral research Monetary gifts,support endowments, equipment

donations, researchfacilities

Informal research Informal partnershipcollaboration among individual

researchers in industry andacademia

Contract research Industry finance forspecific research projectsunder contractual terms

Knowledge Advisory exchange

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ICSE2004 Proc. 2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

transfer and programs and studenttraining scheme training placements in

industryGovernment Government grants tofunded specific research projectscollaborative undertaken jointly byresearch projects industry and universitiesResearch Government sponsoredconsortia large scale research

programs involvingseveral parties

Cooperative Government supportedresearch centers facilities or centers for

collaborative research

Table I .Typology of University/Industry ResearchPartnership

Figurel.Traditional links between university,industry and government

VI. UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP INMALAYSIA

Survey was done to determine the partnershipthat exists between university and industry inMalaysia. There are a few of largemicroelectronics company in Malaysia such asIntel Corporation, Agilent Technologies,Silterra, MIMOS and others. From our surveywe have known that not many industries inMalaysia collaborate with the universities inresearch and development. Type ofpartnerships that exist between university andindustry in Malaysia include:

i) Post-graduate internshipsstudents will come to industry anddo full time research to gainMaster degree

ii) Career talk- Employee fromindustry came to university to givetalk about new career developing

iii) Practical trainingiv) Industry help to introduce MSc

coursework at university whilesending their employee to gainMaster degree. All subject arebased on industry interest

v) Some industry donatefunding/money to universities' labfor research

vi) Lecturer from university dosabbatical at industry

vii) Industry send their worker to teachor do research at university

However, this only involved a few industries.Most of industries haven't collaborated withuniversity especially in research anddevelopment.

VII. ISSUES ON DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPBETWEEN UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY

From our research, we have identified a fewproblems that university and industry faceswhen cooperating with each other.

i) Objectives- The major problem is university and

industry has different objectives intheir research. Industries' objective isto get the last result (product) fromtheir researchwhile universities' objective is toidentify and gain new knowledge intheir research regardless of theoutcome.

ii) Commitment- Industry claims that university didn't

give a fully commitment or

concentration when doing a research.As a result, it took a lot of time tocomplete one research.

- They also claim that most of theuniversities get a funding from thegovernment. Due to this, industryclaims that university didn't work hardenough because they don't depend 100percent on industries' funding.

- However, university said all the issueis not true. The lecturers from the

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ICSE2004 Proc. 2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

university have a responsibility toteach the student. Therefore, it's notpossible for them to give a fullycommitment on their research.

iii) FacilitiesIndustry also claim that universities'lab and its research facilities andequipment is not as sophisticated asthey have. Therefore, there is noreason why they should cooperate withthe university.

VIII. SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

R&D *(Explortion',andnew

fiontieracivifies)

TeachingActivities

l(md bak-ej& nIi Idusialdpostgaduate) Park

(hInovation\d '\. Xy ~~~~Cntre)

(Neartonanket activites)

CoenunityServices

Figure2.New Concept for University

Figure 2 shows a new concept for universityfor the future. As we can see, the university isdivided to 4 sections: Teaching (for academicexcellent), Community Services (forcommunity development), Innovation Centre(University-Industry-Community interactions)and Research Centre (solving global needs forscience and technology).

Here, the Research Centre (R&D) willfunction as a center for all research in earlystages. The Innovation Centre is specially forapplied research and to commercialize theproduct for global use. All the potentialresearch will be send here. While, theCommunity Centre is for life, community andhuman philosophy development.The industry has claimed that the universitydidn't give a full commitment on theirresearch. Below is the suggestion to solve theproblem.

- The lecturer will take two tasks;teaching and doing research. There aretwo semester in one year. The lecturerwill take one semester for teaching andanother semester to concentrate on

their research (where they will beworking at the R&D Centre or theInnovation Centre).

IX. WHAT ARE WE AIMING FOR

Figure 3 below, shows the proposal of what weaim for university-industry partnership. Itshows the connection between university,industry and the society. As we see, theinteraction between university and industrywill create a new venture or new subsidiary.This new subsidiary will own by both theuniversity and industry and the researcher willbe one of the share holders. The product thatproduced by this new venture will be sold backto industry and university.

Figure 3. What we aiming for?: UniversityIndustry Partnership

X. CONCLUSION

For economical growth, it is important todevelop partnership between university andindustry. This partnership will bring benefit forboth of this sector. The issues that rise whendeveloping this partnership has beendetermined and the solution has beensuggested. New concept for university in thefuture will improve the relationship betweenuniversity and industry and one day willachieve what we aim for in university-industrypartnership in Malaysia.

REFERENCES

[1] Campione T., Making Research Technology Succeed,Research-Technology Management, 12-1 (2003)

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[2] Prof Peter M.B., Chambers Science & TechnologyDictionary, Chambers[3] Malaysian Technology, 1996[4] Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis, "Report onNanotechnology," National Symposium on Science andTechnology, Palace of Golden Horses (2003)[5] Prof. Compton Bourne, "University and the PrivateSector," 14 h International Meeting of Universities'Administrators, Kingston, Jamaica (2003)[6] Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis, "MicroelectromechanicalSystems (MEMS) and Microsensor R&D in Malaysia,"National Proceeding on Microelectronic and it'sApplication, Bandung (2003)[7] Collaborative Research Partnership, Institute forRegional & Rural Research, University of Ballarat (2003)[8] Sally O'Neil et. al, University-Industry Partnershipsfrom a Technology Transfer Perspective.http://web.mit.edu/osp/www/3[9] The Utah Partnership. 2004.http://utahpartnership.utah.org/[10] Dr. Richard B. Dasher, The Changing JapaneseUniversity-Industry Partnership: Implications for SiliconValley. (2003) www.keizai.org[II] Wen Shiow Hsu, Building Innovation Models withUniversity-Industry Partnership. (2002)www.mech.kuleuven.ac.be[12] Sally O'Neil, University-Industry Partnership froma Technology Transfer Perspective.http://web.miz.edu/osp/wxxNv/3

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