The Duke Digest - January 22, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • New Partnerships Expand Duke's Presence in China
  • Duke Law School Launches Master's Program in Law and Entrepreneurship
  • NSF-Funded Study: Global Business Teams Need Time to Talk, Not Just E-Mail
  • Duke Officials See Changes After First Year of Obama Administration


NEW PARTNERSHIPS EXPAND DUKE'S PRESENCE IN CHINA
Duke University has forged two new cooperative partnerships in China which will significantly increase the university's presence in that country and create new opportunities for education, research and public service.

The partnership agreements were formally announced today (Friday) during Duke President Richard H. Brodhead's trip to China, which culminated in a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of a planned Duke University campus in the city of Kunshan. The Duke-Kunshan campus, a partnership between the university and the municipal government, will initially focus on executive MBA and non-degree executive education programs, a pre-experience management training master’s degree, training of Ph.D. students and the recruitment of top faculty.

Future activity on the Duke-Kunshan campus will include programs from Duke's schools of public policy and environment, and its global health institute, among others, as education and research opportunities are developed. Duke's educational partner in this venture is Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the leading universities in China.

Brodhead, Provost Peter Lange and Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard also formalized an agreement between Fuqua and Shanghai Jiao Tong's Antai College of Economics and Management. The schools will partner to train Ph.D. students and seek to develop executive MBA and Master of Management Studies programs based in China.

Read More:
New Partnerships Expand Duke's Presence in China (DukeNews)


DUKE LAW LAUNCHES MASTER'S PROGRAM IN LAW AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Duke Law School will launch a unique master’s program in law and entrepreneurship in the 2010-11 academic year. The Law and Entrepreneurship LLM Program will be a two-semester, 23-credit program that builds on Duke Law’s existing strengths in the fields of business law, intellectual property law, and innovation policy. It will also take advantage of strategic ties to entrepreneurial companies in nearby Research Triangle Park, school officials said.

The program will provide a rigorous academic and experiential foundation for lawyers who plan to be involved with innovative business either as advisers or, as is increasingly common, as CEOs or other executives. Admission is limited to applicants who hold a JD or an LLM from an American law school.

Read More:
Law School Launches Master's Program in Law and Entrepreneurship  (DukeNews)


NSF-FUNDED STUDY: GLOBAL BUSINESS TEAMS NEED TIME TO TALK, NOT JUST E-MAIL 
According to a Duke-led study, globally distributed teams cannot rely entirely on technology to overcome time and space barriers; they still need to talk. And that probably means working some overlapping hours.

Jonathon Cummings, associate professor of management and director of the Center for IT & Media in Duke's Fuqua School of Business, developed these recommendations based on a multi-year study of 108 project teams at Intel. Along with J. Alberto Espinosa of American University and Cynthia Pickering of Intel, Cummings assessed the effectiveness of various technologies in helping Intel teams overcome the challenges of different time zones and locations.

“While it may seem that email is a great way to keep projects moving around the clock, none of the current communications technologies was effective in preventing delays when teammates did not share overlapping work hours,” Cummings said. “Modern technologies have made so many forms of collaboration possible, it’s sometimes easy for companies to forget how important direct communication can be to accomplishing a goal,” another study participant said.

The team’s work, which was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and Intel IT Research, appears in the peer-reviewed journal Information Systems Research.

Read More:
Global Business Teams Need Time to Talk, Not Just E-Mail (DukeNews)


DUKE OFFICIALS SEE CHANGES AFTER FIRST YEAR OF OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
Exactly one year has passed since Barack Obama moved into the White House, and Duke University officials say the year has brought welcome boosts in federal support for campus research and student aid. From the stimulus package to federal appointees, many of the Obama Administration's actions have had an impact on campus, and officials expect to see more changes in the coming year.

“First with the stimulus funds and then with the FY10 budget request, the Obama administration has shown its understanding of the importance of university research to the economic success of the country. But what happens should that funding fall off in 2011 and beyond? We hope that the administration will continue with these early indicators of support and make university research a national priority,” said Tom Katsouleas, dean of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

Read More:
Duke Officials See Changes After First Year of Obama Administration (Duke News)