[comp.research.japan] info wanted: Japanese corporations funding research in the west

robertb@cs.washington.edu (Robert Bedichek) (12/05/90)

I am putting together a proposal for a parallel machine project.  It
will be difficult for us to be successful without the material support
of a manufacturer of state of the art DRAMs and VRAMs (Video DRAMs).
The Japanese are the only ones making these (I know about TI's parts, I
don't consider them state of the art).  It would be great to get other
support, like for board fabrication, engineering advice, etc.

I've couched all these questions as though I'm talking to westerners.
But perhaps the most enlightening answers to these questions will come
from Japanese with experience in cooperative research ventures with
western academic institutions.

Questions:

1. Is this something that any one out there on the net has experience
   with?  (Getting support from Japanese companies for their research)

2. If Japanese companies support research in US Universities, what is
   their motivation (if one can generalize)?  I need to know this
   to cast my proposal in the best light.

3. To what should I be especially sensitive?

4. How does one approach a Japanese company with a research idea?

5. I know that many Japanese read English, but would it help to
   have our proposal translated to Japanese?

6. Have you had experience doing some of the work on your project
   in Japan?  If so, what was it?

7. Have you had researchers come from Japanese industry to work in 
   your lab?  If so, how did it go?

Thanks for any help that you can lend.  

	Robert Bedichek      robertb@cs.washington.edu

turner@lll-winken.llnl.gov (Michael Turner) (12/07/90)

>1. Is this something that any one out there on the net has experience
>   with?  (Getting support from Japanese companies for their research)

Not me.  Take what I say with a grain of salt.  I have, however, worked
in one university research group, and a few businesses, that got funding
and other kinds of help from Japanese companies.

>2. If Japanese companies support research in US Universities, what is
>   their motivation (if one can generalize)?  I need to know this
>   to cast my proposal in the best light.

Not too different from the motivation of U.S. companies that support research
at U.S. universities.  I.e., to foster relationships and technology that might
eventually add to their technology base and/or prestige.  I worked at U.C.
Berkeley on IC/CAD (place & route, in particular).  We had one guy from NEC
who was a pretty good programmer and all-around smart guy.  We got money from
NEC, he got experience.  I leave questions of who got the better end of the
deal to the policy analysts.

On second thought--I can't resist.  My take on this is the following:

The Japanese have come to recognize U.S. universities as wellsprings of
technological creativity.  Their own universities are not so great in this
respect--any *real* innovation happens mostly in the big companies.  The
process of reforming any institution is slow, and doubly so in Japan.
Japanese companies can't afford to wait in any case.  They CAN afford to
foster creativity in the U.S.  They are very good at development,
manufacturing, marketing, and general follow-through.  They have lots of
capital and many competent people, but relatively fewer people on the
very high end of the scale of scientific/technological creativity.  It will
be a while before they catch up in that respect.  In the meantime, they are
plugging the gap.

Not much here to help you "cast your proposal in the best light."  One way
you might use this point of view is to open your lab to Japanese researchers
with the explicit purpose of conveying the style of U.S. research.  You might
not get such good people to work with (you will get expert "copiers"), but
the companies will be getting something of value.  Expressing this in the
right way might be tricky, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

>3. To what should I be especially sensitive?

To some extent, you get away with a lot just by being gaijin.  You're
expected to be insensitive, in some sense.  Don't sweat this part.  If you
have what they want (a good idea), and they have what you want (research
funds), it would take lot of weirdness to queer the deal.

>4. How does one approach a Japanese company with a research idea?

I don't know.  Well, yes, I do.  It takes connections.  What I meant is:
I don't have those connections.  Or, well, hmmm....I worked with this
guy Glen Miranker, who is now at Stardent (unless he split when Steve
Johnson did, in which case he might be at N-CUBE.)  Stardent, back when
it was just Ardent, got cozy with Kubota.  Miranker actually got cozy
with them earlier than that, when we were at SHIVA (now defunct) together.
If you can track Miranker down, he might have some ideas.  Also try
Professor Kuh at U.C. Berkeley Electronics Research Laboratory.

>5. I know that many Japanese read English, but would it help to
>   have our proposal translated to Japanese?

Don't bother.  The Japanese you would be dealing with will read technical
English in their specialty almost as fluently as you do.  That doesn't mean
that the "English" they *speak* will be comprehensible.  Most Japanese can
read some English, but fall down on the spoken part.  This is a problem
with their educational system.  So worry about getting an interpreter, not
a translator.  If you are in this for the long haul, start learning the
language.  You won't get money without going over there at least once, so
learning a little of the language will help you get oriented (as it were.)

>6. Have you had experience doing some of the work on your project
>   in Japan?  If so, what was it?

No.  What I've read about this is that it's hard.  The cultural mismatch is
significant.

>7. Have you had researchers come from Japanese industry to work in 
>   your lab?  If so, how did it go?

Yes.  See above.  My situation was atypical, possibly.  The researcher
we got was thru an NEC industrial-liason deal.  Against my expectations, both
his English and his software engineering skills outstripped everyone else's
in our group, except mine.  However, everyone else in our group was either
Chinese or Polish, and all were EE rather than CS (expect for the Pole, who
was a terrible programmer for other reasons).  Still, the experience made me
think that Japan might not need too many more programmers than this guy
Takahashi in order to start outproducing the U.S. in software.  He was
exceptional.

>Thanks for any help that you can lend.  
>
>	Robert Bedichek      robertb@cs.washington.edu

Let me know how it goes.  I'd like to get back over there sometime in the
next year, and I'm casting around for various pretexts.  Any leads you come
up with would be greatly appreciated.
---
Michael Turner
turner@tis.llnl.gov