Reflections on Technology Transfer

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Kevin Kwiat

Dr. Kevin A. Kwiat, formerly Principal Computer Engineer with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York with more than 34 years of federal service, is currently a CAESAR Group partner. He continues his 30+ years as an adjunct professor by teaching in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Network and Computer Security at the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute. He received his PhD in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.

Latest posts by Kevin Kwiat (see all)

• A Hardware Hiatus - November 18, 2024
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• Reflections on Technology Transfer - May 11, 2020

An entrepreneurial instructor gave me this profound advice: “There is a 4-word dissertation in Economics.  It is this: ‘People respond to incentives’”.

Indeed, one of the many incentives to engage in Tech Transfer (TT) is the leveraging of the DoD’s sizable research investment. 

Reflecting upon the Department of Commerce’s support for the CAESAR Group’s TT efforts, it can be interpreted as countering another, albeit less admirable, undertaking: Forced Technology Transfer (FTT).   According to Investopedia¹, “Forced Technology Transfer (FTT) is a practice in which a domestic government forces foreign businesses to share their tech in exchange for market access. The practice is common in China. When a company wants to enter the Chinese market, the Chinese government can compel the firm to share its technology with Chinese companies.” 

Practices like this have spurred the U.S. government’s leadership to respond.  The Washington Free Beacon² reported that Congressional Oversight subcommittee chairman Ralph Abraham (R., La.), declared that China is the most aggressive at stealing U.S. technology, but the problem involved other foreign nations as well and the activities must be stopped. The newspaper quoted him: “Essentially, China steals our fundamental research and quickly capitalizes by commercializing the technology.” When my CAESAR Group partner, Frank Born, read this quote he wryly responded with “We should be so fortunate.”

Clearly, resorting to in-kind stealing is not advocated by the CAESAR Group; however, we do support quickly capitalizing by commercializing research.  An operative word, in our view, is quickly. The fields of technology that we engage with are among the most fast-moving. The inexorable race goes on.  TT, by leveraging the DoD’s investment in research, allows for a head start in this race, leaving FTT as not a capitalizing action, but only for catching up. 

The CAESAR Group’s roots are in AFRL’s predecessor organization – the Rome Air Development Center (RADC) – and it had this slogan: “Honoring the Past, Exploring the Future”.  Today, this slogan is an incentive too – a TT call to arms against FTT and associated activities to surreptitiously gain the economic advantage.  By honoring the DoD’s past investment in research, our industries explore how they can advance in the technological race.

¹https://www.investopedia.com/forced-technology-transfer-ftt-4687680
²https://freebeacon.com/national-security/chinese-spies-engaged-massive-theft-u-s-technology/