Disney to Open Research Labs on CMU Campus

News

Disney and Carnegie Mellon University announced publicly today a major joint initiative to open a collaborative R&D lab. The new Disney Research Pittsburgh Lab will be housed initially in a university facility on Forbes Avenue, just across the street from the building complex containing the CMU School of Computer Science (and, in particular, the Robotics Institute, Computer Science Department, and Human-Computer Interaction Institute), and a short drive to the Entertainment Technology Center.

The lab will conduct advanced research and development in graphics, animation, autonomous behavior, and other technologies relevant to new forms of entertainment for the Disneys Parks, Disney Media Networks, ESPN, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disney Interactive Media Group and Pixar Animation Studios. Also engaged in the initiative is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). Professor Jessica Hodgins (Robotics and Computer Science), will serve as the initial Director of Disney Research Pittsburgh.

The new Disney Research Lab is just the latest major “co-lab” to open on our campus. It joins Intel, Google, and Apple in opening major research labs, all literally within spitting distance of the School of Computer Science. For these companies, the benefits are clear. They get access to tremendous talent and the latest research ideas. They also create an attractive workplace that shares in the creative culture of the university. Finally, by borrowing our top faculty to help launch and direct the labs, they ensure close association with the university.

What are the benefits for us? On the surface, it isn’t clear — after all, we will lose some part of a very important faculty member (Jessica Hodgins) for a couple of years. Similarly, we consistently loan some of our best faculty to the Intel and Google labs on campus. So, entering into such joint initiatives shouldn’t be done without careful thought and tough negotiation. But when done right, the benefits are great. Besides providing an important source of real-world problems to work on, these labs also engage in collaborations — often funded by the lab — and routinely provide research funding to the university. The labs also are an important source of job opportunities that is extremely helpful in “two-body problems” when we are recruiting new faculty. The internship opportunities for students are fantastic. Finally, there is a benefit to our reputation, as we continue to be seen as a place that is easy and productive to work with. And particularly in the area of entertainment technologies, CMU’s preeminence becomes even more firmly established by this development.

The bottom line is that I’m just thrilled that Disney will be the newest major co-lab to open on campus. The chance to work directly with researchers from Disney, ESPN, Pixar, and so on should prove to be really interesting and, well, cool.

Peter Lee @ August 12, 2008