Industry Networks Day promotes ‘radical collaboration’ between industry, academia
The yearly event fosters connections between UChicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and leading industry partners to solve global challenges
UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Prof. Junhong Chen speaks on a panel about sustainability as part of Industry Networks Day, a yearly event bringing industry leaders to PME to provide high-level and inspirational discussion, illuminating pathways to partnerships to better take advantage of collective resources and talent. (UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering / John Zich)
The lab and marketplace found common ground at Industry Networks Day 2024, a yearly UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) event bringing industry leaders and lab researchers together to “encourage strategic thinking and tactical planning to maintain a competitive edge.”
The 2024 event, held last week, focused on sustainability in Chicagoland and elsewhere. Two days of keynotes, research presentations, discussion groups, networking events, receptions, poster sessions and workshops united researchers and entrepreneurs in tacking pressing global environmental issues.
“Industry Networks Day builds our ecosystem of innovation leaders and professionals,” said PME Director of Corporate Engagement Felix Lu. “By bringing a diverse group of bright and very experienced people together in a structured environment and encouraging them help each other, we are setting the stage for new and creative synergies.”
“The Chicago Materials Research Center uses an interdisciplinary approach to discover the design principles of the next generation of materials, and involves researchers from Chemistry, Physics and Molecular Engineering,” said CMRC Director and PME Prof. Stuart Rowan. “This event ensures open lines of communication with industry with the CMRC researchers and expands opportunities for our trainees.”
Industry Networks Day each year brings top industry experts to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering to discuss collaboration and partnership opportunities. The focus of the 2024 event was sustainability. (UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering / John Zich)
Attendee Pete Dulcamara of Pete Dulcamara & Associates, LLC said industry needs these synergies to compete in the modern marketplace.
“No matter how much you know about artificial intelligence, the world knows more. No matter how much you invest in computing capability or sustainable development or new materials, the world outspends you,” Dulcamara said. “In today’s world, creating value for customers requires radical collaboration, and the best way to do that is in partnership between industry, academia, government, and, most importantly, by driving innovation that benefits society as a whole.”
World Coffee Research CEO Vern Long, who attended the event, is no stranger to this kind of collaboration. WCR unites the global coffee industry—bringing together over 190 member companies from 27 countries—to drive and invest in agricultural innovation to help make the global coffee supply chain more productive and sustainable.
“The intertwined challenges of global commerce, global agriculture, and sustainability in the face of the climate crisis are deeply complex. There are no silver bullets or single answers,” she said. “Collaboration allows us to bring a diversity of ideas, approaches, and competencies to these complex challenges to create the possibility of real change.”
WCR works in close partnership with universities and other research institutions around the world, including in over a dozen coffee-producing countries, to create, test, and deploy improved coffee varieties for farmers. Long called pairings between industry and academia “a powerful catalyst for innovation.”
“Academic institutions are powerhouses of knowledge creation and bring rigor to the innovation process,” she said. “But tailoring innovation to the needs of industry is critical to ensure the innovations are relevant and actually solve the problems that matter.”
Among the research presentations and collaborative discussions, participants also heard about partnership opportunities for community outreach, bringing STEM opportunities to historically underrepresented communities while building a pipeline for young engineering talent.
“You're not only going to get the best students from the University of Chicago,” UChicago SHPE Vice President Ryne Montoya, a PhD candidate in PME’s Hubbell Lab, said about partnering with SHPE. “You’re getting the best students from across the Chicagoland area.”
UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Dean Nadya Mason hosted a fireside chat at the event with PME Advisory Board President Wayne Delker. (UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering / John Zich)
The event was part of a week of industry events, immediately following PME's yearly career fair for students looking for their next steps.
“Aligning the Industry Networks Day event with our annual STEM PhD and postdoc career fair—the Science and Engineering Industry Expo—leverages the collective strength of PME’s industry partnerships,” said Director of Career Development Briana Konnick. “By offering both events back to back, we ensure partners from industry can engage in activities that span a wide range of their interests and needs.”
In a fireside chat during the event with PME Advisory Board President Wayne Delker, PME Dean Nadya Mason said industrial-academic partnerships were built into the school’s DNA.
“UChicago PME was started as an intrinsically cross-disciplinary place where we work on thematic research—grand challenge areas where we want to find solutions—and we’re willing to find the best people anywhere who can work together to have impact,” she said.
Mason described the creation of an engineering school at the University of Chicago as part of a larger campuswide move from the abstract to the applied.
“The campus as a whole decided that they needed to reach out more,” Mason said. “They wanted more partnerships. They wanted to work with corporations. They wanted to work more in national labs. They wanted to have a more direct impact in the community. And they developed PME to foster that change.”
