Technology transfer in computer science

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Technology transfer in computer science refers to the transfer of technology developed in computer science or applied computing research, from universities and governments to the private sector. These technologies may be abstract, such as algorithms and data structures, or concrete, such as open source software packages.

Technology transfer, also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the places and ingroups of its origination to wider distribution among more people and places. It occurs along various axes: among universities, from universities to businesses, from large businesses to smaller ones, from governments to businesses, across borders, both formally and informally, and both openly and surreptitiously. Often it occurs by concerted effort to share skills, knowledge, technologies, methods of manufacturing, samples of manufacturing, and facilities among governments or universities and other institutions to ensure that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users who can then further develop and exploit the technology into new products, processes, applications, materials, or services. It is closely related to knowledge transfer. Horizontal transfer is the movement of technologies from one area to another. At present transfer of technology (TOT) is primarily horizontal. Vertical transfer occurs when technologies are moved from applied research centers to research and development departments.

Computer science study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation

Computer science is the study of mathematical algorithms and processes that interact with data and that can be represented as data in the form of programs. It enables the use of algorithms to manipulate, store, and communicate digital information. A computer scientist studies the theory of computation and the practice of designing software systems.

The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the State.

Examples

Notable examples of technology transfer in computer science include:

Year of transferTechnology

Field(s)

Originally developed atTransfer method(s)Commercialised atPatentedUsed by
c. 1964 BASIC Programming languages Flag of the United States.svg Dartmouth College Freeware Computer manufacturers and othersNoNumerous BASIC dialects
1974 (Internet Protocol published)

1992 (interconnection)

The Internet Computer networking

The Internet

Flag of the United States.svg Advanced Research Projects Agency RFC

1992 law permitting commercial interconnection

Numerous companiesNoMillions of web sites and other internet properties
1981 KMS Hypertext Flag of the United States.svg Carnegie Mellon University Spin-outKnowledge SystemsNo?
1984 MATLAB Programming languages

Scientific computing

Numerical computing

Flag of the United States.svg University of New Mexico [1] Incorporation and rewrite [1] Flag of the United States.svg MathWorks No (original)

Yes (from 2001) [2]

Millions of users
c. 1985 HyperTIES Hypertext Flag of the United States.svg University of Maryland [3] Licensing [3] Flag of the United States.svg Cognetics Corporation ? Union Carbide, Hewlett-Packard, others [4]
1990 (initial software)

1994 (Netscape) [5]

World Wide Web Hypertext

World Wide Web

Flag of Switzerland.svg CERN Unfettered use (no patents)

Consortium (to create recommended standards)

Flag of the United States.svg Netscape and othersNoMillions of web sites
1991 Gopher Computer networking

The Internet

Information retrieval

Flag of the United States.svg University of Minnesota RFC

Freeware

Numerous companiesNoNumerous Gopher sites
1998 PageRank Information retrieval

World Wide Web

Algorithms

Flag of the United States.svg Stanford University Spin-out Flag of the United States.svg Google Yes Google Search
2004 (software)

2011 (incorporation)

Scala Programming languages

Object-oriented programming

Flag of Switzerland.svg École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Open sourceFlag of the United States.svg Typesafe Inc. and others? Play, Akka and others
2013 CRDTs Distributed computing Flag of France.svg INRIA and others?Flag of the United States.svg Basho Technologies [6] No Riak [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 Moler, Cleve (2004). "The Origins of MATLAB". Mathworks.com. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  2. "Patents". Mathworks.com. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Hypertext Research: The Development of HyperTIES". Human Computer Interaction Lab. University of Maryland. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  4. "Cognetics History". Cognetics Corporation . Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  5. Lasar, Matthew (11 October 2011). "Before Netscape: the forgotten Web browsers of the early 1990s". Ars Technica . Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Introducing Riak 2.0: Data Types, Strong Consistency, Full-Text Search, and Much More". Basho Technologies. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2014.