Industry-university partnership in graduate research and education

Active interaction and collaboration between industry and academia has always assisted engineering education, especially at the graduate level. The mode of interaction varies and occurs at several levels. This paper discusses a novel approach to industry-university partnership that is grounded in a long-term research based relationship. For over a decade, graduate research associates and faculty from the State University of New York have interacted with several industrial partners, working together as a team to address fundamental issues in electronics packaging and manufacturing. Through this effective partnership, over 100 graduate students have completed their master's thesis and their doctoral dissertations. The University has received research funding that exceeds several million dollars for numerous research endeavors (projects).