Sponsoring the Embedded Signal Processing Laboratory
The Embedded Signal Processing Laboratory, which is directed by
Prof. Brian L. Evans,
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.
Two levels of industrial sponsorship are common:
- Unrestricted gift
- Contract research
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 Prof. Brian L. Evans
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 $45,000 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 $145,000 per year.
When contracted research is funded at a rate of $100,000 or more per
year through the Wireless Networking and
Communications Group, 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):
- Regular updates on the progress of projects
- Regular updates on publications from the group.
- Access to all software with the freedom to use, distribute, and
modify, as long as The University of Texas receives credit
for the development and The University of Texas is not held
liable for defects in software.
- Informal support for the software.
While we cannot commit to provide support for everyone, we make
every effort to respond quickly to problems that sponsors may have
with our software.
- Personal interaction.
We will allocate more time to tell you in person what we are doing
and to listen to your suggestions about the directions in which we
should be going.
In fact, we rely on this sort of guidance from our sponsors to make sure
our work remains relevant to industrial applications.
This guidance can have a strong effect on the direction that
the students' research will take.
- Short-term visitors to the campus are welcomed
(stays from 1 day to 2 weeks can be arranged).
Contact
The primary contact for sponsorship issues is:
Prof. Brian L. Evans, Dept. of ECE
1 University Station C0803
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712 USA
Voice: (512) 232-1457
Fax: (512) 471-6512
E-mail: bevans@ece.utexas.edu
Web: http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~bevans
Last updated 04/09/13.
Send comments to
bevans@ece.utexas.edu.