Sponsoring the Electro-Thermal Bioinstrumentation Laboratory

The Electro-Thermal Bioinstrumentation Laboratory, which is directed by Prof. Jonathan Valvano, relies heavily on sponsorship from industry. Industry is key in identifying critical design problems in reducing development cycles, improving product quality, and lowering cost. Through this exposure, students can strengthen and find practical applications for their research. Industry benefits by having access to students who are intimately familiar with the problems they are trying to solve and the technologies they are using to do it. Areas of expertise developed within the Electro-Thermal Bioinstrumentation Laboratory include

Expertise in the the following applications:

Two levels of industrial sponsorship are common:

Unrestricted Gift

For an "unrestricted gift," The University waives overhead charges so that the entire contribution goes to supporting the faculty member's research. Thus, none of it would pay for administrative expenses, building maintenance, or utility costs. Checks are made out to "The University of Texas". Accompanying the check should be a cover letter that reads:

[Company Name] is pleased to give an unrestricted gift of $xx,xxx to support the research of Prof. Jonathan W. Valvano in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. There is no restriction on the use of these funds.

The cost of supporting a student for 9 months is $30,000 on a no-strings-attached gift. This cost includes salary, tuition and fees, and associated research costs (travel, equipment, publication, and so forth). A detailed breakdown of these costs is available. Gift funding may be tax deductible.

Contracted Research

For a contract, the terms of a contract must comply with guidelines of The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas System, and The State of Texas. This compliance can take up several months to negotiate, and it is possible that the two sides never reach terms. The cost for contract research (including overhead) for two half-time graduate research assistants plus one month of faculty salary and fringe benefits, plus university overhead, is roughly $110,000 per year. When contracted research is funded at a rate of $100,000 or more per year, the funding company automatically receives from The University the right to a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to any technology developed with the funding. A detailed breakdown of these costs is available. Contracted research funding is not tax deductible.

Benefits

Sponsorship entails the following specific benefits (note that non-sponsors also get access to publications and most software, although they may not be aware of the access as early as sponsors):

Contact

The primary contact for sponsorship issues is:

Prof. Jonathan W. Valvano, Dept. of ECE
1 University Station C0803
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712 USA

Voice: (512) 471-5141
Fax: (512) 471-5532
Office: ENS627, Lab 619
E-mail: valvano@mail.utexas.edu
Web: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano


Last updated 1/21/2012. Send comments to valvano@mail.utexas.edu.