The Clemson University Vehicular Electronics Laboratory

The NSF Industry/University Center for Electromagnetic Compatibility

The NSF Industry/University Center (I/UCRC) for Electromagnetic Compatibility originated at the University of Missouri-Rolla as the UMR EMC Expert System Consortium in 1995. In the past 19 years, the center/consortium has sponsored research that has helped dozens of companies to address EMC issues with their current and future products. Today, the center involves 3 universities and approximately 20 companies representing many sectors of the electronics industry. Center research helps these companies keep up with the latest advances in the field so that their products utilize state-of-the-art designs and their engineers have access to the latest EMC design tools and technologies.

Companies with a center membership can work with university researchers on specific research projects and at the same time keep abreast of all other projects being performed by the center. The benefits of the center structure for industry partners are:

  • pooled resources
  • reduced indirect costs
  • a common legal agreement
  • protection of company proprietary information
  • timely research and reporting
  • students and research scholars.

Full membership in the center is $60,000 per year. An associate membership is $30,000 per year. The funding from all industry partners is supplemented by funding from NSF and pooled to address fundamental issues related to electromagnetic compatibility and signal integrity. Member companies share in all research results of the center, and are able to realize value beyond sponsorship of a single university project. Further, the university has reduced indirect costs for funding through the center that allows for the largest fraction of the funding to be devoted to accomplishing the research objectives.

The legal agreement for the center is common for all industry partners. The agreement provides industry partners with a full membership a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use intellectual property developed by the center within the framework of the center research. Company proprietary information, however, is strictly protected.

Research is reported on a quarterly basis through research progress briefs. These reports are delivered through the center's password protected web site. In addition, there are two meetings of all the industry partners each year at which research progress is reported and research focus areas and directions are established.


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