testimonianza di alessandro tommasi lab innovation

CryptoLabTNActive links

ExpectationsObstacles

Pathways to Innovation:Academia and Industry

Alex Tomasi

University of TrentoDepartment of Mathematics

May 30, 2013

Alex Tomasi Industrial Math Lab

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.unitn.it/en

http://www.unitn.it/en/dmath




Outline

1 CryptoLabTN

2 Active links between academia and the private sector

3 Expectations: private sector vs. academia

4 Obstacles to be overcome





Members

1 Director: Massimiliano Sala3 Research Fellows: Riccardo Aragona, Pietro Peterlongo,

Alessandro Tomasi6 PhD students: Matteo Piva, Chiara Marcolla, Emanuele

Bellini, Marco Calderini, Federico Pintore, ClaudiaTinnirello

9 Master’s students and young graduates2 Software engineers: Lorenzo Nicolodi, Alessio Parzian2 Administration: Francesca Stanca, Elisa Cermignani





Activities

The Lab’s main activities can be summarized as follows:

we provide several courses for cryptographers and expertsin security systems;we develop projects funded directly by private companies;we pursue academic research in fields closely linked toreal-life applications.


http://www.science.unitn.it/~sala/lab/index.html




Introduction

The Lab investigates two types of cryptography: Commercialcryptography

e-commerce, online banking, privacy protectionuse of standard solutions and protocolsupper bounds on security level

Cryptography suitable for defense applicationsprotection of classified informationuse of dedicated solutions and own protocolslower bounds on security level (provable security)


http://www.science.unitn.it/~sala/lab/index.html




Active links between academiaand the private sector





Stage

Students spend a continuous period of time at a company’soffice.

Requirements : adequate provision of facilities at thecompany’s site

Pros : allows the company to integrate the student inday-to-day routine over a period of time

Cons : the experience can be somewhat disjoint fromacademic studies





Internships

Students spend some of their time at a company’s office, andsome working at dedicated stations at their academic homeinstitution.Requirements : adequate provision of facilities at both sites

Pros : allows the student to use research tools on thejob and discuss problems immediately with bothprofessional and academic staff

Cons : requires more careful management of tasks andexpectations





PhDs

Companies can provide the funds for a student’s PhD if thestudent is willing to spend a significant amount of time, e.g. 12months, working at the company’s premises.Requirements : a company with sufficiently complex needs,

either due to scale or advanced technology, e.g.finance, energy, software

Pros :allows the company to have access todedicated cutting-edge scientific research fora long period of time;allows the student to acquire highly valuablework experience

Cons : requires negotiation of property rights anddisclosure agreements; requires balancing thecompany’s goals with research objectives





Research contracts I

A company commissions a specific piece of research orsoftware.

Requirements : a company with sufficiently specific andspecialised needs

Pros :allows the company to have access tocutting-edge scientific research withoutnecessarily devoting facilities or man-hours tothe task;allows the student to acquire highly valuablework experience and teamwork skills





Research contracts II

Cons :requires negotiation of property rights anddisclosure agreements;requires commitment to a commercialcontract that must be honoured on pain oflegal recourse;requires the company to bear the fullcommercial risk;requires careful management of tasks andexpectations;requires public contracts if specific hires arenecessary





Expectations: private sectorvs. academia





Private sector I

Concreteness : Give specific answers to the right degree ofdetail; don’t just state something may be possiblein theory, say what it would take to achieve aspecific goal and whether it would make anysense to try

Quantitative measures : applied problems require exactanswers; be mindful of constants and orders ofmagnitude

Time management : meet deadlines; don’t promise more thanyou can deliver; prepare for delays





Private sector II

Hands-on approach : prioritise solutions that work overelegant and comprehensive ones; be ready to takeon responsibility and solve problems yourself, e.g.by writing your own code

Professional attitude : take responsibility for your decisions,for better or worse; keep the promises you makeand never leave something unfinished; admit toyour mistakes and fix them in the shortest possibletimeframe





Academia I

Negative results : Proving something is not possible is just assignificant a result as the opposite

Research needs to be published... : At least some of themoney spent by the company will contribute tofreely available information, but truly original ideascan lead to valuable intellectual property

... but published research is not infallible : even if you don’taim for original research but simply implementsomething published by others, methods thatallegedly perform well in academic tests may notfare well when applied to real-world data





Obstacles to be overcome





Lack of information I

First and foremost, this is the greatest problem to be overcomein all its facets: both the private sector and academia aresusceptible to it. Here are some concrete examples and a fewsuggestions on how to solve it.

Private sector :The company does not even realise it has aproblem.The company has no idea academia cansolve their problems without buying somethingoff-the-shelf or calling in a consultancy firm.





Lack of information II

Academia :The institution does not know whichcompanies operate in the vicinity.The company has no idea academia cansolve their problems without buying somethingoff-the-shelf or calling in a consultancy firm.

Common : sources of funding.





Establishing channels I

The best way to overcome a lack of information is to establishchannels through which it can be spread, from one-to-onechannels to comprehensive forums.

Conferences : organised by either academia or the privatesector, regular events encourage participation

Courses : highly specialised and intensive events, one dayor at most a week

Consortia : some business categories form consortia whoseentire reason for being is to provide services to thecategory that funds them, among which spreadingawareness of resources for problem-solving isprominent





Establishing channels II

Career fairs : inviting companies to participate inend-of-academic-year career events makes themaware of graduates’ skill sets

Successful collaborations : past performance is not areliable indicator of future returns - but it is greatfor spreading word-of-mouth!





Sources of funding I

These largely depend on local arrangements and are highlythematic, but some noteworthy ones include:

Public interest, regional : foundations (financial orotherwise), regional government, region-specificnational funds

Entrepreneurial : Start-up and spin-off funds are sometimesavailable from universities or business chambers

EU : a multitude of options, from individualscholarships to projects involving a dozencompanies - these all have trans-nationalrequirements





Bureaucracy I

Another major hurdle to overcome is pervasive and perniciousbureaucracy, to which the only permanent solution is successfullobbying against red tape. Meanwhile, mitigation strategies areessentially based on careful planning to address the followingrisks:

Taxes : transactions are taxed at every level, includingcuts taken on contracts by departments andcolleges

Hiring : if a project requires a specific skill-set, such assoftware development in a certain language, aformal hiring process may take time and imposeunrealistic requirements on candidates





Bureaucracy II

Proliferation of signatories : Ensure you know how manylayers of approval are required to pass a contractbefore you agree on a deadline with companies.

Intellectual Property : European law states that IP derivedfrom research contracts belongs to the companiesfunding the research. Have this argument withyour university’s IP office before drafting thecontract.

Enterprise risk : Italian law states that as universities run onpublic funds, they cannot bear enterprise risk - inother words, anyone signing a contract withacademia must pay up, as long as work hasdemonstrably been done, regardless of theoutcome of the research.



testimonianza di alessandro tommasi lab innovation

Technology