In 2016 CSAIL Alliances introduced a new Research Initiatives model that brings a consortium of 8-12 companies together centered around timely topics where CSAIL’s research is poised to have a significant impact. Research Initiatives provide an opportunity for companies to connect with other industry members and CSAIL researchers to explore ways to solve business challenges in a particular space.
Each member of the Initiative has one seat on the executive board of the consortia along with the faculty director(s). Members and the faculty directors discuss industry challenges and research applications. From those discussions, problem statements are created and circulated across all researchers in the lab who are invited to submit project proposals. Proposals are selected by the executive board typically resulting in 4-6 projects each year.
Research Initiatives involve several researchers addressing multiple problems where Sponsored Research is one researcher/research group focused on one specific problem.
Current Research Initiatives:
For full details on any CSAIL Alliances programs, please contact Lori Glover, CSAIL’s Managing Director of Alliances, at loriglover@csail.mit.edu.
