Industry outreach

MRSEC industrial outreach programs vary considerably from one center to another. Center Directors, staff and faculty are generally available to discuss potential collaborations, interactions and partnerships. Involvement in MRSEC activities by industrial scientists and engineers benefits those organizations in many ways. Besides access to the latest scientific discoveries and innovations in the Universities, research programs can often be jointly designed to address issues of mutual interest. Getting to know the students through collaborative interactions prior to being available on the job market also gives the company a considerable edge in hiring the best talent. Indeed, the majority of MRSEC trained students and postdocs are hired by industrial R&D or manufacturing organizations. Since the MRSECs attract faculty that are interested in interdisciplinary and (collaborative research, it is easy to interact with an entire community of researchers through the MRSEC and to build external relationships with faculty inclined to forming partnerships. Many individual MRSEC faculty members are available for consulting and other arrangements as well.

Further details about programs and contact information can be obtained on the individual MRSEC websites.

Industry Partnership Matrix

Industrial Partnerships

The MRSECs are actively engaged with industry to stimulate and facilitate knowledge transfer and strengthen links between University based research and its applications. Many different programs have been locally developed to address specific needs and opportunities. Individual activities may include:

Industry Highlights

July 12, 2010

Picoprojection is the latest advanced display technology enabled by ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon microdisplays, developed by LCMRC spin-off company, industrial partner, and collaborator Displaytech, now a division of Micron, Inc.. LCMRC researchers pursue new liquid crystal materials and alignment systems enabling low power consumption bistable liquid crystal switching.

May 26, 2010

Micron-sized non-volatile magnetoresistance devices are being pursued using ferroelectric/magnetostrictive multilayers. Previously, we have demonstrated reversible ferroelastic domains in PZT ferroelctric bilyaers (Adv. Materials 21, 3497 (2009)). In such bilayers, different elastic states can be achieved through reversible twin boundary motions induced by small voltage pulses. The elastic states are used to tune magnetic anisotropy in FeGa layer.

March 9, 2009

OmniGuide BeamPath Fiber LaserTechnology based on fundamental studies carried out within our MRSEC is now saving lives at hospitals across the country: over 175 novel endoscopic surgical procedures per week are being carried out across 250 medical facilities in the U. S. using high-power laser radiation delivered by OmniGuide photonic fibers.