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At the conclusion of a three-year, $12.5 million multi-institutional research collaboration with academic partners, Intel Labs commissioned a comprehensive program evaluation to determine efficiency and effectiveness of its partnership with social science researchers.

During a six-month engagement at Intel Labs’ facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, Dr. Knobel conducted 54 in-depth interview nationwide with participating project personnel at Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University, Intel Labs, New York University, and University of California-Irvine. He also collected, organized, and analyzed over 300 research-based products generated by the collaboration. Through qualitative analysis techniques, he identified several key factors contributing to project dynamics in the following areas.

  • Project Management
  • Goals and Expectation Setting
  • Roles and Positions
  • Coordinating Activities
  • Extracting Ongoing Value

From these topics, a set of 34 strategic principles for future collaboration with academic partners laid out a foundation for structured and transparent communication, management, reporting, and decision processes that translate research results and business value throughout the organizational management structure of Intel Labs. By addressing the alignment of differing incentive structures between industry and academy partners, higher value in innovation investments for research can be captured and transferred to Intel’s production culture.

As Intel Labs engages in future collaboration with academic partners, it is better informed to create management, accountability, and productivity structures at the onset of large-scale projects.

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District Sales Manager / Cequent Performance Products

Cory’s interdisciplinary background gave him the ability to see patterns and solutions across different domains that were not apparent to others on the team. These valuable insights have led to opportunities for improvement in the way Intel manages its relationships with academic institutions. I am looking forward to my next occasion to work with Cory.

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Principal Researcher / Intel Corporation

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Associate Professor / Georgia Institute of Technology

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Global Innovation Manager / Whirlpool Corporation

I had the opportunity to hire Cory to document a multi-year, multi-institution (academic and industry) research network that involved over 70 participants with as many projects. Cory conducted interviews with key members of the research network, reviewed key projects, analyzed this data, and produced a detailed report on the activities of the network, with an emphasis on analyzing the structures of collaboration that did and did not work. The report was simply outstanding. Throughout the project, Cory constantly excelled in both his social skills and his research skills. His deliverables were on time and thorough, and his insights were exceptional.

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Associate Professor / Georgia Institute of Technology

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Global Innovation Senior Manager / Whirlpool Corporation

I engaged with Research At Work Consulting for review of the University of Michigan Enterprise Analytics Roadmap. We asked the RAW team to look for areas that were either underrepresented or missing. Since we thought we had done a comprehensive roadmap, we were surprised with the results. The RAW team did an excellent job of comparing our roadmap to national standards and identifying areas requiring additional definition. It was a thoughtful and thorough review.

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Director of Data Management Services / University of Michigan Medical School

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