5 ms·

Given unlimited funds, could a school like OHSU or PSU realistically gear up to 'world-class research' status quickly?

by santaclaus 11y ago

gravypod 11y ago
The only thing that's expensive about R&D is the people. The materials, and the ideas are nearly free.
- santaclaus 11y ago
  Well, and time. I imagine it would take 3 to 5 years to start poaching and recruiting new, top faculty. These top faculty in turn have to recruit top PhD students and assemble research labs, which is going to take time as the school is not yet mentioned among the top 10-20 programs. Tack a few more years on for enough publications to hit top venues. This is probably at least a decade to hit the level of, say, USC, let alone crack the top 10 or even top 3 occupied by the likes of a CMU or a Stanford or a Berkeley.
  - gravypod 11y ago
    I know a few people who work in R&D who are quite good at their activities. They can usually turn around an effective product in at max a year. They usually create a set of underlying patents, this takes maybe a year of reading academic journals and thinking of your physics and me guys, and then you usually have a theory you can put in practice. Apparently, all they need from there is a trip to home depot, one or two things off amazon, and a PCB designed and printed. From there, they can make a wide range of products. One small invention can be used as the underbelly for many, many pieces of technology; everything that comes as a result usually also has one or two applications to research or defense. This means big money. Most real R&D is self sustaining, so long as you have a team that can sell. The hard part of R&D is getting the right people in my mind. I've had this conversation with many people, and it usually helps to ask this: has anyone you have met who works in R&D said they didn't like their job? I've never heard of it. I'm curious to see what you think.
davidw 11y ago
It's partially political: the University of Oregon is in Eugene, and has always been the main university in Oregon, followed by OSU in Corvallis. Along these lines, I'm quite pleased that Bend is getting a university, OSU Cascades, which is something that has been lacking over here.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
  Really Portland has only 4 year schools (both private and public). PSU is really a giant 4 year university (with a scattering of mostly masters and a few doctoral programs). OHSU is more sui generis.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
  What Portland is really missing is a "Northern Oregon University"-a smaller public liberal arts college, along the lines of WOU, etc.
  - davidw 11y ago
    Reed is supposed to be pretty good.
    - ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
      And pretty expensive. A public liberal arts college in PDX is needed.
rdl 11y ago
Would be better to have a private school, I think. I'd probably go either graduate-only or do something crazy like graduate + coop/internship with $0 tuition, and small. Realistically you have to start small, so I think it's better to be focused. Olin College would be my model for the undergrad program; probably takes a $200-500mm commitment which is about the upper bound of a high net worth endowment. Combine that with a heavily industry-funded graduate program (maybe start focused on a couple specific industries -- say, security and hardware verification, if you could get HP/Intel support), also small and focused. MIT Media Lab would be another model.
_delirium 11y ago
Given a lot of money, sure. One angle is to offer internal research funding. If a university said: come here and you won't have to chase grants, just do good research and we'll fund it internally, you'd have a ton of people wanting to move there. Good salaries help too, but given sufficient funds, the first thing I'd do to differentiate is offer working conditions that look qualitatively better than elsewhere.

Given unlimited funds, could a school like OHSU or PSU realistically gear up to 'world-class research' status quickly?

gravypod 11y ago

The only thing that's expensive about R&D is the people. The materials, and the ideas are nearly free.

santaclaus 11y ago
Well, and time. I imagine it would take 3 to 5 years to start poaching and recruiting new, top faculty. These top faculty in turn have to recruit top PhD students and assemble research labs, which is going to take time as the school is not yet mentioned among the top 10-20 programs. Tack a few more years on for enough publications to hit top venues. This is probably at least a decade to hit the level of, say, USC, let alone crack the top 10 or even top 3 occupied by the likes of a CMU or a Stanford or a Berkeley.
- gravypod 11y ago
  I know a few people who work in R&D who are quite good at their activities. They can usually turn around an effective product in at max a year. They usually create a set of underlying patents, this takes maybe a year of reading academic journals and thinking of your physics and me guys, and then you usually have a theory you can put in practice. Apparently, all they need from there is a trip to home depot, one or two things off amazon, and a PCB designed and printed. From there, they can make a wide range of products. One small invention can be used as the underbelly for many, many pieces of technology; everything that comes as a result usually also has one or two applications to research or defense. This means big money. Most real R&D is self sustaining, so long as you have a team that can sell. The hard part of R&D is getting the right people in my mind. I've had this conversation with many people, and it usually helps to ask this: has anyone you have met who works in R&D said they didn't like their job? I've never heard of it. I'm curious to see what you think.

davidw 11y ago

It's partially political: the University of Oregon is in Eugene, and has always been the main university in Oregon, followed by OSU in Corvallis. Along these lines, I'm quite pleased that Bend is getting a university, OSU Cascades, which is something that has been lacking over here.

ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
Really Portland has only 4 year schools (both private and public). PSU is really a giant 4 year university (with a scattering of mostly masters and a few doctoral programs). OHSU is more sui generis.
ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
What Portland is really missing is a "Northern Oregon University"-a smaller public liberal arts college, along the lines of WOU, etc.
- davidw 11y ago
  Reed is supposed to be pretty good.
  - ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
    And pretty expensive. A public liberal arts college in PDX is needed.

rdl 11y ago

Would be better to have a private school, I think. I'd probably go either graduate-only or do something crazy like graduate + coop/internship with $0 tuition, and small. Realistically you have to start small, so I think it's better to be focused. Olin College would be my model for the undergrad program; probably takes a $200-500mm commitment which is about the upper bound of a high net worth endowment. Combine that with a heavily industry-funded graduate program (maybe start focused on a couple specific industries -- say, security and hardware verification, if you could get HP/Intel support), also small and focused. MIT Media Lab would be another model.

_delirium 11y ago

Given a lot of money, sure. One angle is to offer internal research funding. If a university said: come here and you won't have to chase grants, just do good research and we'll fund it internally, you'd have a ton of people wanting to move there. Good salaries help too, but given sufficient funds, the first thing I'd do to differentiate is offer working conditions that look qualitatively better than elsewhere.