Supporting the right industries

Earlier this month at a housewarming party in Long Beach, California, I met Mike Rivas, the vice president of admissions at Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) in nearby Laguna Beach. As a location for an art school, Laguna Beach makes sense. The town has an unusually high number of shops that sell paintings, sculptures, and other art. But at the risk—which I willingly take—of being thought a snob, I have to say the art on sale in Laguna Beach is vulgar, unicorns-in-the-surf dross.

Thus prejudiced, I was worried that Mike’s students learn how to increase the supply of pictures of fluffy kittens and dayglow Hawaiian sunsets. I was utterly wrong. Mike explained that LCAD is famous for its programs in animation and game art. The college has strong ties to the movie and computer gaming industries. Its graduates are in high demand.

I was reminded of LCAD last week when I read an account of a surprisingly frank discussion that China’s Premier Wen Jiabao participated in in New York City. Wen was in town for a United Nations’ conference on eliminating world poverty, but the remark of his that lodged in my brain was about iPads.

Wen complained that even though Chinese factories make the popular tablet computer, they earn only $6 per unit. Apple nabs the lion’s share, because it sells the device and because it designed it. Other, presumably non-Chinese companies earn money when iPad owners buy attractively designed apps from Apple’s iTunes store.

This week I’m in Singapore visiting labs and facilities funded by the country’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR is the slick abbreviation). Like China, Singapore has a thriving high-tech manufacturing base. Half the world’s disk drives are made here. Through A*STAR and its sister agencies, the island’s government establishes effective and profitable links between academic research and industry.

Singapore’s government and its advisers have already learned Wen’s iPad lesson. To ensure future prosperity, it’s not enough to make expensive high-tech gadgets that sell by the million. You have to design them too. In two years’ time, Singapore University of Technology and Design will admit its first students.

Funding and promoting ties between academia and industry is worthwhile—provided you choose the right industries.