Daniel Weld
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington

Having Intel Research Seattle located near the University of Washington is very valuable for our faculty and especially for our students, who have the opportunity to spend more time at the lab. It's fantastic for students to have access to the lab's world-class researchers-to be able to work with them and get their perspective, insight and tutelage, whether they're collaborating on a project or completing a summer internship.

I personally benefit from having some terrific colleagues at the Intel lab who can brainstorm with me and give me feedback on research ideas. In my view, a corporation like Intel has a much better understanding of the critical problems that need to be solved than many of us in academia do. The lab provides a sense of direction and insight into the most important problems to explore, which is incredibly helpful to me and my colleagues. Having the lab so close makes it seem as if our department is substantially larger, in terms of the breadth of research we can pursue.

In addition to offering opportunities for collaboration, the Intel lab brings in a stream of very high quality researchers to give colloquia. Being able to attend these colloquia, and have my students attend, has been incredibly broadening.

I've been involved in many research projects with start-up companies, some of which I founded, and technology transfer in both directions has been very difficult, because of intellectual property issues. In many cases, it's hard to even get a collaborative project launched because of all the problems surrounding who will own the IP. Intel's open and collaborative research model solves almost all, if not all, of these problems.

I'm just beginning to collaborate with Intel Research Seattle. I spend time there each week, contributing to the Human Activity Recognition research group meetings. I'm not yet involved in any joint projects with the lab, but I look forward to research collaborations in the future.