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.
Three levels of industrial sponsorship are common:
- Unrestricted gift
- University corporate affiliate funding
- Contract research
Unrestricted Gift
For an unrestricted gift, The University waives overhead charges.
Checks are made out to "The University of Texas".
Accompanying the check should be a cover letter:
Gift cover letter template
In the gift cover letter template, please fill in the parts in red.
A no-strings-attached gift does not come with the promise or expectation of
delivery of research results exclusively to the affiliate; instead, the
investigator has the widest latitude to make results available to the general
public and can certainly let the affiliate know when such public releases occur.
Any intellectual property developed would be governed by the
UT System
Policy on Intellectual Property as well as any other
policies of UT Austin and UT System and laws of The State of Texas.
The cost of supporting a graduate student on no-strings-attached gift
for the fall/spring semesters (9 months) is $63,000.
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.
University Corporate Affiliate Funding
UT Austin has a standard agreement for a company to join as
a corporate affiliate of a research center at UT Austin.
Prof. Evans is part of the
Wireless Networking and Communications
Group (WNCG) which currently has more than 10 corporate affiliates.
WNCG has more than 20 faculty, 4 staff and 150 graduate students.
Here are some of the specific benefits for
WNCG corporate affiliates:
- Meetings twice a year for all corporate affiliates
- meet graduate students, staff, and faculty to discuss research ideas
- recruit graduate students into internships and permanent positions
- give ideas for future research directions of the research center
- Regular updates on the progress of projects
- Regular updates on publications
- Personal interactions
- Short-term visits to the campus are welcomed
(stays from 1 day to 2 weeks can be arranged).
The University waives overhead fees for University Corporate Affiliate
Agreements.
Corporate Affiliate funding does not come with the promise or expectation of
delivery of research results exclusively to the affiliate; instead, the
investigator has the widest latitude to make results available to the general
public and can certainly let the affiliate know when such public releases occur.
Any intellectual property developed would be governed by the
UT System
Policy on Intellectual Property as well as any other
policies of UT Austin and UT System and laws of The State of Texas.
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 contracted research (including overhead) for two half-time
graduate research assistants plus two months of faculty salary and
fringe benefits, plus university overhead, is roughly $215,000 per year.
A detailed breakdown of these
costs is available.
Contracted research funding is not tax deductible.
Contact
The primary contact for sponsorship issues is:
Prof. Brian L. Evans
UT Austin WNCG
2501 Speedway Stop C0806
Austin, TX 78712-1687 USA
E-mail: bevans@ece.utexas.edu
Web: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~bevans
Last updated 12/12/23.
Send comments to
bevans@ece.utexas.edu.