Top Academic and Industry Wants

During EdTech Innovation in Alberta, there was a special session on the wants and needs of industry and academia. We had representatives from Universities across Canada and many industrial companies such as Husky Energy (HSE.TO), Telus (TU), Desire 2 Learn and SMART (SMT).

Top 3 Academic Wants

1. Government Matched $$
2. Cooperative Industry-Academia People Exchanges (e.g. internships)
3. Free Hardware and Software

Top 3 Industry Wants

1. Teamwork and Communication skills
2. Real-world studies (compared against the next best alternative)
3. Return on Investment

Tim Workman from Husky Energy put it best when he gave us two quotes:

"Everybody calls to sell me something. Very few people call to solve my problems."

"An Expert is something who knows more and more about less and less until they know almost everything about nothing"

While I don't agree with the second, the first rings very true.