International Workshop on the Globalization of Engineering Research, Development and Design. To be held in Arlington, VA on April 4-6, 2012

Rochester Institute Of Tech, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

Project Title: International Workshop on the Globalization of Engineering, Research, Development and Design Proposed Activities: We propose to hold a two-day workshop exploring, in-depth, the globalization of engineering, research, development and design. The workshop will bring industry practitioners, such as corporate engineering and R&D managers, together with academic researchers to explore the emerging phenomenon of engineering globalization. There is strong evidence of a trend that engineering work and tasks are being restructured and reallocated across different countries. Yet this significant transformation of engineering hasn?t been explored systematically. The workshop includes panels of leading corporate engineering managers who will discuss the scale and scope of specific tasks being done in particular geographies. In addition, leading academic researchers will present the current state of knowledge about engineering globalization. The second day will include breakout sessions exploring topics in more depth, identifying the gaps in our knowledge, and generating and calibrating an agenda for further research in this important field. Intellectual Merits: We have reached a level of U.S. R&D investment overseas which approaches 25% of the total annual research budget. As a consequence the challenge of managing global engineering and research resources is a being faced by a growing number of companies. Yet, we know very little about how companies protect intellectual property, manage global technical integration of resources and acquire and maintain complementary assets to ensure appropriation of benefits from these investments in technical projects. The conference aims to calibrate the research agenda in this arena and generate researchable, applied questions with high potential impact. Broader Impacts & Deliverables: The primary deliverable from the workshop is an edited proceedings and website. The workshop conveners will complete a paper summarizing the findings of the workshop including the workshop generated research agenda for engineering globalization. In addition to the proceedings and paper, we will pursue the idea of a call for a special journal issue in an appropriate outlet for the best conference papers and any new papers that might be generated after the conference. The journal would be a scholarly publication that practitioners read. The findings will be widely disseminated to academics, industry practitioners, and policymakers.