February 26, 2004
Trip to Austrailia, New Zealand, Singapore gives birth to international research consortium
President Lee Huntsman and vice provost for international education Steven Olswang recently returned from a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore that generated expanded academic relationships and the beginnings of an innovative international research consortium.
Two Australian universities, Macquarie University and the University of Sydney, will expand their student exchange programs with the UW. Sydney and the UW also are embarking on a collaborative program for master’s students in speech and hearing sciences.
Canterbury University in New Zealand and the UW already have had an exchange program, which will be expanded. In addition, the universities signed an agreement for the franchising of the UW’s Human Interface Technology (HIT) Laboratory. Under the agreement, the UW’s lab will serve as a model for the creation of a similar laboratory at Canterbury, involving not just that university but private corporate partners and the regional economic development agency.
The arrangement, which has been in the pilot phase for the past year, has so far attracted 20 corporate partners, as well as cooperation from other regional universities, and 40 research projects are envisioned. Under the franchise agreement, the UW will receive a share of royalties on any patents granted to the Canterbury lab, and researchers at the UW will collaborate with Canterbury scientists in the areas of virtual reality and augmented reality.
A similar type of agreement was under discussion with the National University of Singapore and Infocom, Singapore’s government agency for economic development.
“I’m optimistic that Singapore will become the second HIT Lab franchise,” Olswang said. Discussions also are under way with the University of Adelaide in Australia about joining the consortium.
Olswang and Huntsman visited Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, which already has in place a joint research project with the UW in bioengineering. While at Nanyang, they met with the head of the government agency responsible for basic research and the minister of education, in addition to officials from Nanyang.
A new memorandum of understanding between the two universities will result in additional student exchanges and could result in 50 Nanyang students spending two quarters at the UW in 2005, with the number rising to as many as 250 by 2009.
“Overall, the UW has come away with terrific opportunities for expanded partnerships with schools that are English-speaking, in parts of the world where few UW students currently go,” Olswang said. “We also were able to give impetus to additional research collaborations, and to create financial structures for broadening faculty and research interactions in that part of the world.”
