GTECH Holdings Corp., a Rhode Island-based gaming services company, is unlikely to renew its membership in the Department of Computer Science's Industrial Partnership Program after it expires this year.
Companies participating in the program offer students internships and are involved in research with faculty. They also send representatives to symposiums to make presentations to Brown students. Participating corporations must pay a membership fee, which can be as high as $25,000 for premier partners.
Currently, member companies include Google, Apple and Sun Microsystems.
Michael Black, professor of computer science and former co-director of the Industrial Partnership Program, said programs such as the Industrial Partnership Program "help companies with hiring ... and give them more visibility."
GTECH, which finished moving into its world headquarters from West Greenwich to downtown Providence in late 2006, has participated intermittently in the program since its creation in the early 1990s, said Donald Stanford '72 MS'77, adjunct professor of computer science, former chief technology officer of GTECH and currently an adviser to the company.
It has been "a struggle" to get it back into the program, Stanford said.
Though GTECH has moved its headquarters close to Brown, involvement in the program has "nothing to do with physical distance but with operating philosophy," he said.
"People come and go," Stanford said. "The person who was champion (of IPP) at GTECH left in December 2006. There's a leadership vacuum." No one else at GTECH has expressed interest in maintaining the firm's relationship with the University, he added.
"(IPP) is not a priority at GTECH anymore. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is," he said.
Black said the department has had "a great partnership with GTECH."
"It is a tremendous technology company with really exciting technological problems to solve, like computer security," he said.
Black said he hopes there will be more interaction between GTECH and IPP in future.
"We'd love to have them back. One day it'll happen," he said.
Matthew Whalen, vice president for systems engineering at GTECH, was not available for comment. Associate Professor of Computer Science John Hughes, the current director of the program, declined to comment.
