May 20 Meeting with the Department of Electrical Engineering at L'Aquila

Today I met with Maria Domenica Di Benedetto and Piero Tognolatti as well as addtional faculty and researchers at Universita L'Aquila. They have a very good department with 19 full professors, 21 associate and 13 assistant professors. Their research budget is approximately 1 million Euro annually. They have been agressive in developing spin off companies and I was able to see demonstrations by two. Maria Di Benedetto gave a presentation on the center of excellence termed DEWS - Design of Embedded Controllers, Wireless Interconnects and Systems on Chips. They are very interested in developing industrial partnerships, which has not been easy in the past. They were very interested in the LSU strategic partnerships and intern programs for placing students with industries. L'Aquila does not have a very strong industrial base and this makes the process difficult. They have a Spin Off Company called West Aquila which has integrated systems technology for the automotive and air traffic control industries. They want information on The Clemson University BMW Research Park operated by my colleague in AURP, Bob Geolos and information on the LSU Ag Center Smart Home. I will send this to them. They have identified several centers of Innovation that are being discussed including the Automotive, Energy, Agriculture and Design where they feel that they have the expertise to participate. They would like to discuss a joint agreement with LSU in Computing Sciences and Engineering to futher their programs in Air Traffic Control Management Systems, Automotive electronics and tracking systems and wireless sensor networks. they have also developed a biometric card reader that could be useful to LBTC graduate business - Time Solutions LLC. Piero conclude with comments and asked if we could meet next week to discuss a strategy to assist them in getting more industrial partnerships.