Consortium STRUCTURE

All activities of the consortium are lead by the Center Director and co-Directors, responsible for center operations and for initiating and managing research and development activities. Site directors help manage their own university’s research teams and collaborate with the center directors and each other. 

The consortium research projects are determined by the members of the Industry Advisory Board (IAB), comprised of representatives from industrial partners, the Consortium Director, and co-Directors. The members will be able to nominate representatives with voting rights to the Industrial Advisory Board. The Industrial Advisory Board will also include associate members representing start-ups and small businesses, but with reduced voting rights. IAB will elect a chair who will be responsible of reviewing and recommending on research funded all or in part by membership fees. Please see the Sample Industry Membership Agreement for more details.


LetterS of Commitment

In preparation to consortium activities, we have organized a kick-off meeting  at ASU, with 75+ attendees, including representatives from ~30 companies and government agencies, who expressed interest in membership. A separate pre-planning meeting was held at UMD with ~25 attendees. We will soon make available the videos of the key workshop sessions at our web site.

We are currently reaching out to NSF to recognize the consortium as an "NSF I/UCRC", which will also help provide additional funds to support the consortium's operations. Before, we submit a formal request, however, NSF expects us to collect a certain number of  "Letters of Commitment" that states "We will participate in CASCADE" at full membership fee level of $50K (for small business, there will be a $25K associate membership -- see the Sample Industry Membership Agreement for more details): 

  • Each letter of commitment should contain the following language "Should {Center Name} be selected by NSF for funding, {Company Name} commits to joining {Center Name} as a full/associate member at the membership level of ${amount}, pending clarification of intellectual property implications and availability of funds on an annual basis." Note that the formal commitment is for one year minimum; but for the financial stability of the Center, we prefer a moral commitment of two year minimum.
  • Other language in the commitment letters are left to the discretion of the potential member.
  • For the submission of a new Center, care should be taken to identify the Site (ASU or UMD) associated with each member letter.

Our target is to collect letters of commitment by December 20, 2017 to ensure that we receive the recognition from NSF and their financial support as early as possible.

For further questions and information requests, please contact the CASCADE-ASU and CASCADE-UMD leadership.