University of Washington professor and Chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department, Ed Lazowska provides an overview of the ongoing process of innovation that has made America the world leader in information technology.  For more than 50 years, a complex partnership of industry, academia, and government has driven the field forward. Today’s industry product innovations build upon previous research results, largely funded by the federal government and carried out in university labs. Interestingly, 10-15 years seem to be consistently required to move from an initial idea to a billion dollar industry segment. The Internet is a great example: digital packet switching was first deployed in ARPANET in 1968, and the TCP/IP protocol suite was designed in 1973. From the Series:Seattle Innovation Symposium