Sponsor Undergraduate Research

Sponsor Undergraduate Research

Benefits for the Company:

• Access faculty expertise and laboratory capabilities.
• See students in action and find potential hires.
• Professional benefits and public relations benefits from mentoring students teams at Virginia Tech.

Depending on the project, the results can include:

• Cost savings.
• Safety improvements.
• Productivity improvements.
• Sustainability benefits.

Cost for the Company:

The fee to sponsor a Packaging Senior Project is $7,000. This fee provides funding for occasional student travel to client's site, overhead for the students' machine shop, and graduate teaching assistants who work with the faculty, student teams, and industry to ensure that the projects are completed on time. Besides the fee, the sponsor company is responsible for providing all packaging materials that are required for the project.

Expectation for Company Involvement:

A company liaison needs to be appointed for each project. The student group works independently throughout the semester but consults with the liaison on an as needed basis. Progress reports are provided to the sponsor twice per semester. The sponsors are encouraged to attend the final presentation at the end of the project.

Confidentiality:

During their efforts to complete senior design projects, project teams may receive information from the project sponsor which is privileged and is to be held in confidence. Virginia Tech provides industry sponsors with a contract that ensures both students and faculty will maintain such confidences. These agreements are treated as a very serious issue and are between each team member and the client.

Intellectual Property:

Virginia Tech waives its rights to intellectual property, data, and products generated as a result of the work performed by the students. Students also waive their rights to the intellectual property, data and products through an agreement with the Sponsor (note: students who are not in agreement with this requirement can participate on alternative projects that are not industry sponsored and so have no such requirement).

Submit Project Ideas:

We welcome new potential project ideas and proposals from a variety of sources. Project ideas should be discussed with the Faculty Coordinator to determine the feasibility of the project given faculty and laboratory resources.

To learn more about the program feel free to contact the Faculty Coordinator.