Reflections on Software Engineering Research Collaborations: From Ottawa to the Software Engineering Institute to Silicon Valley

Abstract

This paper outlines challenges, practices and successes in establishing and sustaining software engineering research collaborations between academia and industry. These activities were observed over a period of 25 years while in a variety of research tech transfer and change agent roles at Cisco, Qualcomm, and BNR/Nortel. This experience was complemented by serving as a Visiting Scientist for one year at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) while on loan from BNR/Nortel. Research collaborations were incubated, brokered, and sustained through: the cultivation of internal relationship sponsorship by executives and company experts, tech scouting to identify relevant projects, information sharing, seed funding (gift and sponsored research agreements), and talent migration to accelerate technology transfer.