2013 CIEC Conference (on industry-education collaborations)

The 2013 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration (CIEC) was held in Phoenix, AZ in February 2013. It brought together about 250 industry and academic representatives and was cosponsored by four ASEE divisions (CEED, CIPD, CPDD, and ET) all with objectives to enhance this collaboration between the industry and academia for mutual benefit. We presented two papers on the impact of a six year Motorola grant on our curriculum and the new paradigm that has developed at FAU that has opened communication channels among teaching, research, and industry professionals to enhance job placement, entrepreneurship, and grants. The CIEC conference attendees genuinely cared about enhancing the education experience of the students. The Keynote speech by Dr. Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor, The State University of New York (SUNY), summarized quite effectively their approach to providing multiple applied learning opportunities. She called for ‘systemness’  at anchor institutions and ‘ROEI’ (ROI for Education) as a measure of effectiveness. Our own local smaller-scale initiatives map well to Dr. Zimpher’s six-pronged approach (entrepreneurship, seamless education pipeline, healthy and vibrant community, globalism, and energy awareness).