Chinese regional innovation systems in times of crisis: the case of Guangdong

The dynamic economic development of Guangdong province is one of the most prominent examples of China's catch-up in the course of the past two decades. Once chosen as the nation's first experimental field for the market economy, the province continued to participate above average in national economic growth ever since. Up to today, it maintains a leading position with regard to general industrial performance and average personal income. As China's industry begins to embark on a path of technological up-grading, however, this pre-eminent position begins to be challenged. In the nation's emerging fields of strength, the province's rivals, Beijing and Shanghai, are in a better starting position since they are better endowed with both R&D capacities and qualified human capital. In this context, our paper illustrates the resulting challenges by means of a number of specialized indicators and explains why, despite a continously impres-sive export performance in the high-tech sectors, Guangdong is far from well prepared to maintain its current position. Finally, it briefly describes the policy responses that have been developed, concluding that despite clear evidence of progress some key issues with regard to regional innovation policy appear to remain unaddressed. --

University Research, Industrial R&D, and the Anchor Tenant Hypothesis

We examine geographic concentration, agglomeration, and co-location of university research and industrial R&D in three technological areas: medical imaging, neural networks, and signal processing. Using data on scientific publications and patents as indicators of university research and industrial R&D, we find strong evidence of geographic concentration in both activities at the level of MSAs. While evidence for agglomeration (in the sense of excess' concentration relative to the size of MSAs and the size distribution of research labs) of research in these fields is mixed, we do find strong evidence of co-location of upstream and downstream activity. We view such co-located vertically connected activities as constituents of a local innovation system,' and these appear to vary markedly in their ability to convert local academic research into local commercial innovation. We develop and test the hypothesis that the presence of a large, local, R&D-intensive firm an anchor tenant' enhances the productivity of local innovation systems by making local university research more likely to be absorbed by and to stimulate local industrial R&D. Presence of anchor tenant firms may be an important factor in stimulating both the demand and supply sides of local markets for innovation and may be an important channel for transmission of spillovers. While our empirical results are preliminary, they indicate that anchor tenant technology firms may be an economically important aspect of the institutional structure of local economies.

Patents and R&D: an econometric investigation using applications for German, European and US patents by German companies

Based on the data of the first wave of the Mannheim Innovation panel, this paper explores the link between R&D expenditures and patents. Our data allow a detailed analysis of the firm size distribution of R&D and patent applications at different patent offices. It is shown that the share of R&D performing firms is strictly increasing with firm size. The share of firms applying for patents shows an even steeper increase with firm size. Moreover, large firms more likely apply for patents in more than one country. The home patent office seems to be especially important for small firms. Using various count data models, the paper explores the relationship between R&D and patents at the firm level. We carefully test several distributional assumptions for count data models. A negbin hurdle model seems to be the most appropriate count data model for our data as the decision to patent inventions and the productivity of R&D are ruled by different mechanisms. Our estimates point towards significant returns to scale of R&D. Furthermore, the empirical results can be interpreted towards minor and insignificant spillover effects. Even after controlling for a variety of firm characteristics, firm size exhibits a large effect on the propensity to patent. --

Girls from Low Socio-Economic Backgrounds: Factors Influencing their Interest in ICT Study and Career

The under-representation of women in information and communication technology (ICT) fields of study and occupations has attracted considerable attention of researchers in higher education. This paper discusses findings of a preliminary investigation aimed to investigate further study and career preferences of female students in one of Melbourne’s all-female secondary schools and determine factors that might influence their decisions. The investigation focused on female students from schools in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, home to families with low socio-economic status and students exposed to “educational disadvantage”

Inverse kinematic analysis of 4 DOF pick and place arm robot manipulator using fuzzy logic controller

The arm robot manipulator is suitable for substituting humans working in tomato plantation to ensure tomatoes are handled efficiently. The best design for this robot is four links with robust flexibility in x, y, and z-coordinates axis. Inverse kinematics and fuzzy logic controller (FLC) application are for precise and smooth motion. Inverse kinematics designs the most efficient position and motion of the arm robot by adjusting mechanical parameters. The FLC utilizes data input from the sensors to set the right position and motion of the end-effector. The predicted parameters are compared with experimental results to show the effectiveness of the proposed design and method. The position errors (in x, y, and z-axis) are 0.1%, 0.1%, and 0.04%. The rotation errors of each robot links (θ1, θ2, and θ3) are 0%, 0.7% and 0.3%. The FLC provides the suitable angle of the servo motor (θ4) responsible in gripper motion, and the experimental results correspond to FLC’s rules-based as the input to the gripper motion system. This setup is essential to avoid excessive force or miss-placed position that can damage tomatoes. The arm robot manipulator discussed in this study is a pick and place robot to move the harvested tomatoes to a packing system

Designing Hands-On Robotics Courses for Students with Visual Impairment or Blindness

School laboratories let students playfully experience the fundamentals of, for example, robotics, computer science, and technology-related topics. By working with LEGO Mindstorms, secondary school students get a chance to learn on a cognitive, emotional, and haptic level and gain experiences with the aid of even more advanced robotics. However, due to an impairment or lack of sight, it is hardly possible for some students to fully participate in a programming process or in building a robot. To overcome this unintentional discrimination, the interdisciplinary student laboratory “RoboScope” at RWTH Aachen University has teamed up with a group of experts to develop a barrier-free robotic course. Since then, the course has been tested and implemented based on concurrent evaluations and frequently held at RWTH and several other German schools. The presented work covers an overview of different kinds of visual impairment and lab settings and the development cycle of the courses at RWTH from design to testing, implementation, and further development regarding the evaluations. Evaluations show that students who are visually impaired or blind appreciate the opportunity to participate in the field of robotics. An insight into the evaluation concept that differs from “regular” courses in the “Roboscope,” as well as the results are used for further development