V-C delivers inaugural lecture at MIT

The Vice-Chancellor will say that international collaboration is one of the keys to success, and that the potential technological advances to be made when organisations and countries work together are immense. But, he will add, researchers need to be allowed to work in an environment in which they are unconstrained by short-term objectives, and their ideas are allowed to develop and flourish.

In his talk, Sir Alec will trace the evolution of some of the key technologies that have driven the information and communication industries. He will note that almost all advances in technology involve large organisations - including companies, and university research labs. But, he notes:

"Small companies, which have spun out of large companies and universities, frequently bring advances originally made in large organisations to the market place, and go on themselves to become large enterprises."

"One of the keys to success is collaboration within organisations, across nations and across the world," Sir Alec says. "Ideas can emerge anywhere in the world and the potential of international collaboration is immense - hence my excitement and optimism over the Cambridge-MIT Institute."

But, he concludes, there is a need to preserve an environment for researchers in which totally new ideas and concepts are free to evolve and flourish:

"It is necessary to have what I think of as a 'membrane' between the research and the development environments. The membrane allows the ideas of the researchers to pass to the world of development and allows them to 'see' the requirements of the commercial world, but prevents the lure of product development from constraining their creativity to short term objectives. Industrial and university researchers can work together behind this membrane."

Sir Alec will be delivering the inaugural Charles L Miller Annual Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The lecture series was set up in memory of the former MIT professor, who helped usher civil engineering into the computer age, and developed the first computer programme for topographical surveying in 1961 - an early forerunner of CAD programmes.

Professor Dan Roos, Japan Steel Industry Professor of Engineering and Director of the Engineering Systems Division at MIT, says:

"This lecture series has been established to honour Charles L. Miller's extraordinary contributions to MIT and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, and his early and revolutionary interest in the impact of information technology on education and practice in engineering. We are delighted that an engineer of Sir Alec's calibre is giving the inaugural lecture in this important series."

The event is sponsored by the Cambridge-MIT Institute - the partnership between the two universities that is carrying out education and research to improve the UK's competitiveness, productivity and entrepreneurship. This collaboration is supporting a range of innovative research projects with commercial potential; undergraduate exchange and research opportunities; new educational offerings - including new Master’s courses combining science with business; and work with fellow UK universities on technology transfer and enterprise initiatives. The lecture is also sponsored by MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and its Engineering Systems Division.