Technology-based companies, by definition, must be able to see what innovations are on the horizon – perhaps a decade in the future – in order to plan their next generation of products. Forming strategic plans based on emerging technologies is essential to their survival, but it’s not easy.

Dundar Kocaoglu and his team of researchers have developed a process to help companies make these strategic decisions using mathematical models to determine a decision’s impact. For example, his team looked at emerging electronic cooling technologies for computers, predicted their effect on the microprocessor industry, and used those findings to advise major corporations.

Kocaoglu’s team is using a similar approach to evaluate the future use of nanotechnology in agriculture, and to guide policy decisions. In another application, they developed a model that will help close the “digital divide” in developing countries.

Kocaoglu is one of the originators of the engineering and technology management field. He began developing it when he was at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1970s, and soon became a much sought-after consultant to universities, private companies, and the United Nations. He was invited to start Portland State’s Engineering and Technology Management Department in 1987. Today it is one of the most respected departments of its kind in the world.