Douglas Comer

Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University

"Lessons Learned From Working In Industry And Academia"

Abstract

Although he has spent most of his career in academia, the speaker has taken several leaves of absence to work in industry. This talk distills speaker's observations about fundamental differences between an academic environment and an industrial environment. It considers the structure of organizations, time scales, attitudes, reward systems, and innovation. The talk describes the demise of the 20th century industrial researchlab, and the consequences for both the research community and industry.

Career Summary

Douglas Comer is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. An internationally recognized expert on computer networking, Comer has been involved in Internet research since the late 1970s. His series of ground-breaking textbooks have been translated into sixteen languages, and are used by professional engineers and students around the world. Comer worked at Bell Labs, and spent six years at Cisco Systems, where he was Cisco's first VP of Research. For twenty years, Comer was editor-in-chief of the journal Software -- Practice And Experience. He is a Fellow of the ACM.