One unique way to garner buy-in: Offer your manager input into the electives you take during the program, suggests Liz Kasberg, also a graduate Kenan-Flager.

WSJ: Five Ways to Get Support for Your Degree

Commercial input into the defence industry is not a one-way process.

ECONOMIST: America's defence companies are turning dual-purpose

One way this can be successfully accomplished is by "multiplexing" the electrodes normally used to relay touch input -- that is, using the same electrodes to handle the signals for both touch control and the pixels of the LCD, according to a 2010 IHS report on touch-screen displays.

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