RIT Professor Invited to Join the National Innovation Initiative

Sponsored by the Council on Competitiveness

Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, has been invited to join the Council on Competitiveness’ National Innovation Initiative (NII).

On Feb. 26 and 27, Hira will attend the first group meeting of the NII at Georgia Institute of Technology. The yearlong project, led by IBM’s Chairman and CEO Samuel Palmisano and Georgia Institute of Technology President G. Wayne Clough, will develop a strategic plan for driving innovation. The initiative will culminate in a National Innovation Summit to be attended by administration officials, governors, members of Congress and private sector leaders.

The Council on Competitiveness, founded in 1986 and comprised of industrial, university and labor leaders, seeks to set an agenda that drives economic growth.

“There is more attention to offshore outsourcing now due to media coverage and the persistent unemployment problem,” Hira says. “I think people are beginning to realize this is having real impact. ”

Earlier this month, Hira participated on a roundtable sponsored by the U.S. Council of Foreign Relations to discuss offshore outsourcing and its implications for the U.S. high-tech workforce. In January, he briefed senior congressional staff on policy issues related to outsourcing during a roundtable organized by the Council on Competitiveness.

Hira, an expert on engineering workforce issues, chairs the Careers & Workforce Policy Committee for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA. His work focuses on technology and industrial policy.

Hira’s recent research looks at the development of the Indian software industry, policy implications of offshore outsourcing, and new methods for measuring the linkage between research priority setting and social outcomes.