Long lasting conference banquet last night delayed my posting about the DySPAN day 2 :)
DySAPN 2011 continued with interesting discussions in the second day. A particular interest to me was the keynote speech given by Jon Peha (assistant director, White House office of science and technology policy) with the title of “race to prevent innovation“. He is a guy who knows both academic research and governmental policy in the deepest level, and his talk captured his experience very well.
His main question was this: who’s job is it to work out hard details? Let me explain more. Academic researchers stop at conceptual level. They throw a half-backed concept out hoping somebody else completes the idea. Industry is reluctant until things get mature. Regulators depend on others. Sometimes they move themselves with understaffed resource. This interplay among three players prevent innovation from being realized.
He urged researchers not to stop at an infant conceptual level. Your great idea will die alone unless you nurture it. This is actually a message repeated by many others in this DySPAN.
