Jayson Tessier¹, Julien Lauzon-Gauthier¹, Mario Fafard², Houshang Alamdari², Carl Duchesne², Louis Gosselin²; ¹Alcoa, ²REGAL

In 2009, Alcoa started an extensive research and development program with different professors from Université Laval in Quebec City. The program, mainly oriented into advanced modeling, carbon material and advanced statistics, was aimed at improving our R&D capability by enhancing our core technical expertise. Universities offer a diverse in-depth fundamental expertise that is not necessarily available in-house, where industrial researchers are oftentimes more oriented into applied research. Universities also provide hi-tech specialized laboratory equipment not available within typical industry laboratory. After 10 years, about 60 graduate students have obtained a master's or PhD degree. This presentation summarizes different results obtained throughout this fruitful journey as well as key learning on developing and maintaining relationship between University and Industry partner.