Ikhlaq Sidhu hosts workshop to help universities accelerate innovation through industry collaboration

Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology’s faculty director and founder, Dr. Ikhlaq Sihdu, recently hosted a workshop at Hamid bin Khalifa University (HBKU) in Qatar to explore how university scientists and researchers can spur innovation through industry collaboration. Ikhlaq delivered a talk titled “Accelerating Innovation at Universities and Partnering with Industry.”

By connecting academic research at universities with the commercial research being done in industry, researchers and scientists at universities can innovate more quickly by working on the same problems that commercial companies are facing.

“When innovators are connected to ideas beyond the walls of their own institutions, they’re inspired to come up with next-generation products that can potentially change the business landscape,” said Ikhlaq, “Innovation gets accelerated when those involved in the process build connections with others that are not traditionally seen as collaborators in their field.”

The workshop was attended by faculty, scientists, and students from HBKU as well as industry representatives from leading industry in Qatar. Topics covered at the workshop all centered around how academia and industry can better collaborate to expedite the innovation process in order to produce cutting-edge outcomes to meet market needs.

Ikhlaq Sidhu recently joined the Board of Trustees at Hamid Bin Khalifa University.