AUSTIN, Texas—With a $6 million gift from the family of George and Ronya Kozmetsky, the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin will collaborate with Stanford University’s Department of Communication, School of Humanities and Sciences and Media X program to sponsor initiatives aimed at stimulating access to shared global prosperity, the institute announced today.
Called the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory (KGC), the program brings together research faculties from the universities and provides opportunities for students and faculty to engage in cutting edge research. Dr. George Kozmetsky founded IC2 and is executive associate for economic affairs for The University of Texas System. He was co-founder of Teledyne Inc. Ronya Kozmetsky is the founder of Women in Management.
“Our goal for this initiative is no less than shared global prosperity, and the technology sector has demonstrated the potential to lead this charge,” George Kozmetsky said. “We set up the IC2 Institute in Austin 25 years ago to establish links at home and abroad and to accelerate the sharing of knowledge. Today we will extend that collaborative enterprise to include Stanford and link to the Silicon Valley.”
“This initiative continues IC2’s strong engagement in the new experiments of the 21st Century. George Kozmetsky has always been on the forefront of innovative ideas,” Dr. John Sibley Butler, director of IC2 Institute said. “This formalizes a relationship that the IC2 Institute has long shared with Silicon Valley. This is an exciting agreement between two institutes located in regions with strong traditions of technology commercialization.”
IC2, which has a 25-year history of collaboration, will bring together scholars from different disciplines with an interest in new venture creation and multimedia research to work with Stanford.
Dr. Syed Shariq, who has ties to Stanford and IC2, initiated the collaboration. He has been an IC2 Senior Fellow for more than twenty years and was involved when IC2 initiated technology commercialization ventures and entrepreneurship education, and established business incubators in Silicon Valley and around the world. At Stanford, he is director of the Project on Knowledge, Belief and Institutions and co-chair of the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory.
The Kozmetsky family’s $6 million gift will sponsor students, fund research for using interactive games in education and training, and start programs targeting the various avenues associated with global prosperity.
The Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory will soon start these projects:
- Global Knowledge-Design Collaboratory—accelerating the learning and training of entrepreneurs
- Digital Media Collaboratory—creating the next generation of scalable training technologies
- Study of Knowledge Belief and Institutions—fostering the development of learning and social capital in the communities
- Corporate Fellows Network—enlisting the expertise and knowledge of the corporate marketplace.
The program has strong support on both campuses.
“I am delighted that professors at The University of Texas will conduct joint research with professors at Stanford so that new knowledge is developed that benefits students at both schools and society at large,” said Sheldon Ekland-Olson, provost, The University of Texas at Austin.
“We are pleased that a person of George Kozmetsky’s influence has chosen to support Stanford and particularly our new Media X program,” John Etchemendy, Stanford provost, said. “Stanford has been fortunate to serve as the incubator for many breakthrough technologies, and we realize that innovations in interactive technologies must come from diverse regions such as Silicon Valley and Austin to truly influence the leaders of the 21st century.”
George Kozmetsky’s achievements in the university and business sectors are well documented. In addition to his role with Teledyne Inc., he has helped develop more than 100 technology-based companies, and has served on the board of leading companies including Gulf Oil, La Quinta Corp., Heizer Inc., and Dell Computer Corp. A former dean of The University of Texas at Austin College of Business Administration, Kozmetsky is chairman of the IC2 Advisory Board and is a senior research fellow of the IC2 Institute.
George Kozmetsky will provide the leadership to the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory as its founding chairman, and also will be appointed consulting professor at Stanford’s Media X program. The Global Knowledge-Design Collaboratory will be led by John Sibley Butler, director of IC2, Clifford Nass, professor of communications at Stanford, and Dr. Syed Shariq. The Digital Media Collaboratory will be led by Alex Cavalli, IC2’s deputy director, Dr. Roy Pea, director of Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Learning, Dr. Byron Reeves, professor of communication at Stanford, and Ellen Wartella, dean of The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Communication. Butler, Cavalli, Shariq, Dave Gibson, Director, Fellows, Publications, Conferences, Visiting Scholars at IC2, and Michael Wakelin, Bechtel (Corp.) Fellow Emeritus, will lead the Corporate Fellows Network
About the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin
The Institute for Innovation, Creativity, and Capital (IC2) at The University of Texas at Austin is an international, transdisciplinary research laboratory and education facility dedicated to the continuing, sustainable economic growth of the nation and the world. IC2’s mission is to explore, experiment with, and extend capitalism to generate economic prosperity that leads to sustainable and civil societies. It is the home of the Austin Technology Incubator, Clean Energy Incubator, MS in Science and Technology Commercialization degree program, and E-Learning and Training Labs.
About Media X
Media X is a collaboration of Stanford University and industry that brings together Stanford’s leading interactive technology research with companies and other organizations committed to technical advancement and innovation. The program creates a research network focused on multidisciplinary projects that are influencing the next generation of commerce, learning and entertainment technology.
For more information contact: Sherry Holdridge, IC2 Institute, 512-482-0273 x272; Rob Franklin, School of Humanities Sciences, Stanford University, 650-723-4471; or Todd Logan, Stanford University, Media X Program, 650-724-1701.
