From Stanford Electrical Engineering Department Graduate Handbook
cis.stanford.edu/
Richard Dasher
Executive Director CIS 106, (650) 725-3621
rdasher at cis.stanford.edu
Yoshio Nishi
Director of Research, CIS 103, (650) 723-9508
nishiy at stanford.edu
Marjorie M. Alfs
Programs and Administration Manager, CIS 104, (650) 725-3617
mmalfs at cis.stanford.edu
Miho Nishi
Administrative Associate, CS001, (650) 725-3626
miho at cis.stanford.edu
The Center for Integrated Systems is a partnership between member industrial firms and Stanford University. Though organizationally CIS is part of the School of Engineering, its research portfolio includes areas covered by the School of Humanities and Sciences. The breadth of CIS thus reflects the nature of the nanoscale science and engineering era, which is characterized by “interdisciplinary” approaches and “cross fertilization” from field to field.
Partner companies in CIS have the ability to earmark portions of their yearly membership fee to a specific Ph.D. student “FMA” Fellow and to a Custom Research allocation with a particular professor or professors. In addition, a portion of the membership fee is pooled into a Seed Research fund. Most Seed Research projects support the development of new research areas or approaches by existing faculty, or they serve as start-up funds for new professors. A listing of current CIS projects can be found in the online Catalog of Research at http://cis.stanford.edu/.
The model of the CIS partnership reflects the need, shared both by the university and by industry in the fast-paced, economically constrained world of high technology in the 21st Century, for closer channels of cooperation than mere “linear” transfer of technology via graduates, conference presentations, and research publications. CIS stresses real-time interactions with our partner companies, e.g. by mandating a standing relationship between each Ph.D. student who receives CIS support and a “mentor” expert in the technology at a partner company. Moreover, CIS provides faculty with (small amounts of) relatively unrestricted funding that can be used at the early stage of research before a specific deliverable can be completely defined. Partner companies thus achieve a much earlier-stage window into emerging technologies than is possible through traditional technology transfer channels.