Title: Knowledge and Technology Transfer: A personal experience and perspective

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Time: 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Venue: Room 1401, HKUST

Abstract:
A university is an institute to advance knowledge. After the industrial revolution, it has taken on an additional role, that of advancing engineering and technology. In the recent years, the advent of high-tech has brought rapid changes to society and the global culture. A university now has become a spearhead in advancing new ideas in response to the fast growing markets. A major part of its mission today is how to transfer knowledge into feasible technology and then technology into commercial reality. Universities such as MIT and Stanford, have engaged heavily in finding ways to transfer technology to industry. Institutes of this caliber have become a significant driving force in moving the frontier of high-tech. The University of Waterloo is relatively young. However, because it was established during the hay days of software development, it engaged in transferring software through licensing in the 60's and in transferring technology through spin-off companies in the 80's. In this talk, the speaker will share some of his personal views on knowledge and technology transfer at Waterloo, mostly based on his personal experience at the PAMI Lab and the spin-off companies founded by him and his colleagues. The talk will address various modes of knowledge and technology transfer. It includes: 1) publications, patents and deliverables from fundamental and applied research; 2) development of high-tech human resources in graduate training and co-op program; 3) government and industrial sponsored research; 4) technology collaboration and consulting and technology licensing and 5) spin-off companies. Through out the presentation, examples will be given to illustrate the pathway as well as the hurdles in knowledge and technology transfer.

Biography:
Andrew K.C. Wong received his B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. from Hong Kong University and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 and taught there afterward. He joined the faculty of University of Waterloo in 1976. He is currently a full professor of Systems Design Engineering, Director of the Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) Laboratory at the University of Waterloo and a Visiting PAMI Chair Professor of Computing Department, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has authored and coauthored chapters and sections in a number of books on engineering and computer science and has published close to 100 journal papers and many conference papers. He has extraordinary strong funding records from three different sources: Federal Government (Canadian and U.S), Centers of Excellence from Provincial Government (Ontario, Canada) as well as he industrial sectors. From 1987 to 1997, he is heavily involved in space robotic projects supported by the Canadian Space Agency. He was awarded four patents and has served as a consultant to many high tech institutes and companies in Canada, United States and Hong Kong. In technology transfer, he is the founder, and chairman (1993-1997) and director (1993-present) of Virtek Vision International Inc., a world-leading innovator and supplier of intelligent precision laser systems. It is based in Waterloo with offices and subsidiaries in Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ontario; and Brussel, Belgium. Virtek is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In 1997, he founded and served as the chairman of Pattern Discovery Software Systems (PDS) to advance three core technologies: pattern discovery, 3D modeling/animation and genomic pattern synthesis. Its patented pattern discovery software engine discover*e has been applied to oil industry, sociology and pharmaceuticals. By combining its break-through technology with personalization and permission principle, PDS offers a new solution for personalized e-Commerce and CRM on the Web. Since 1984, Dr. Wong has served as external examiner and academic advisor for a number of universities in Hong Kong, Singapore and North America. He is the 1991 recipient of the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals Award of Merit.