Exploring university-industry technology transfer of CAD technology

Since its establishment in 1982, the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) has funded extensive silicon-based semiconductor research at universities, including research in the area of computer aided design. While the consortium has had success with transferring this research to its members, the overall incidence of transfer has been limited. This study explored the key issues affecting the transfer of university computer-aided design (CAD) technology from the SRC CAD Center at Carnegie Mellon University to the SRC's industrial membership. Most research on improving technology transfer has focused on finding mechanisms to promote person-to-person interaction between developer and adopter. Interview and survey data collected from the 12 CAD Center faculty and 15 SRC member firm personnel suggest that transfer succeeds only when SRC member firms establish organizational incentives for technical personnel to commit their time to the implementation of university research, and when they provide these personnel the organizational resources needed to perform this implementation. Suggestions for improving the mechanisms of transfer are offered, but without reform in organizational incentives, improving these mechanisms is unlikely to significantly increase the rate at which university research is commercialized for actual industrial use.