Mithani, William Maio ’10 Engineering, and Professors Susan Walsh Sanderson (Management) and Ken Simons (Economics) attended the Smart Lighting ERC Industry-Academia Day, held at RPI’s core partner Boston University, showcasing the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) to industry. More than 135 researchers, students, and industry executives participated in a program of presentations, posters and panel discussions. A highlight of the program was a lineup of 10 finalists in the student poster competition presenting their research findings in a 90-second ‘elevator pitch’ style.
Dr. Majeed Foad, Manager, Advanced Thin Films Group, CTO Office, Applied Materials, Inc., and Chairman of the ERC Industry Advisory Board, presents the winning poster award to Rensselaer PhD student Murad Mithani.
Mithani’s poster, co-authored with Sanderson and Simons, was entitled “Firm Survival and the Dynamics of Competition in the Display Industry.”
The study examined long-term performance and participation by U.S. and Japanese firms in the global liquid crystal display (LCD) industry. Research showed that the capability a firm develops over time from its presence and success in an evolving market is a source of competitive advantage. The departure of the U.S. firms that pioneered and led the industry at its outset shifted technological leadership to Japanese firms whose consistent investments paid off as new markets developed. The short-term profit outlook, failure to invest, and early exit of U.S. firms, who had pioneered the technology and the market, cost them a great deal over the longer term, while Japanese firms chose to invest and remained to dominate what became one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. This study has implications for firms developing innovative LED and OLED technologies and challenges them to find ways to persist in markets characterized by high uncertainty but where lack of persistence may undermine future competitiveness.
The poster was selected as the winner by ERC’s industrial advisory board, and Mithani received a $400 cash prize provided by the BU Technology Development Office.
The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) focuses on developing intelligent lighting systems with adaptive and controllable properties not possible with incandescent and fluorescent lights. This interdisciplinary, multi-institution organization was funded by NSF in 2008 and receives additional support from NYSERDA. It is led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has as core partners Boston University and The University of New Mexico. The center engages in research and education, and works closely with industry to facilitate commercialization. For more information see smartlighting.rpi.edu or contact Silvia Mioc, Director of Industrial Collaborations, at miocs@rpi.edu.
View Conference Program http://smartlighting.rpi.edu/events.html
View Research Poster Abstracts http://smartlighting.rpi.edu/SmartLightingPosterAbstractBooklet.pdf