Knowledge Transfer in Formal Education

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Knowledge Transfer in Formal Education

• Paul Wilson
• Engineering Physics
• UW-Madison

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Dispensing with the Obvious

• Universities are, by definition, environments for
  knowledge exchange
• Undergraduate classrooms
• Graduate laboratories
• Student organizations
• Department colloquia
• etc

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What Else Is There?

• Industry partnerships
• Inter-faculty knowledge transfer

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Industry PartnershipsGuest Lectures

• Introduce students to current issues, tools,
  technologies
• Containment modeling with GOTHIC
• QA Communicating through calculations
• Share historical perspective on technical
  decisions
• Connect pedagogical topics to real world issues
• Provide context for learning
• Stimulate interest in todays issues

5
Industry PartnershipsDesign Projects

• Students work on projects at industry site
• Projects motivated by industry needs
• Input on design parameters
• Industry partners as resource

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Industry PartnershipsProfessional Development

• Prepare students for professional environment
• Many aspects of a nuclear workplace are not
  modeled in a university environment
• Prepare students for knowledge transfer
• Reality of todays young nuclear workforce
• Train students how to seek out unofficial
  knowledge

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Inter-faculty Knowledge TransferResearch Reactor
Experience

• Passing on operational and research history
  (UW-Madison case)
• New reactor director
• New interest in research using reactor
• Archives exist little time/motivation to go
  through it all
• Recent documentation and approval of new
  experiment

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Inter-faculty Knowledge TransferIndustry
Connections

• Senior faculty started their careers during a
  more active time in the industry
• Connections based on active collaboration and
  development
• Increasing industry activity will lead to new
  connections and sharing of old connections

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Summary

• Universities have a role to play in informal
  knowledge transfer
• Requires collaboration with industry partners
• Participation of industry in curricula
• Pedagogical opportunities for students in
  industry
• Prepare for and practice informal knowledge
  transfer in university environment