The sad thing is the students who actually did the work will probably see no financial gain from this. Students pay to take a class and then a company pays the university for access to the students and the students ideas and work is used by a company with no financial benefit to the students. Everyone makes out except the students.
I worked at a UC and companies retained all IP across all UCs and my undergrad school from the east coast was the same way. I’ve never heard of a university that let students keep their IP. I would imagine it would be hard to attract outside companies since the companies pay to be a part of the program. Can you point to a university program that allows students to retain their IP for senior design projects? I know if a student is doing a project through the school for a different class like a lab and they invent something or are volunteering the university has no claim to it but senior design is different.
So it looks like for senior design classes the students don’t have to be associated with projects where they lose their IP rights. But sponsors have the right to say a project will give all IP to the sponsor. I imagine how this works in practice is all external companies will require they retain IP then the professor creates additional projects where ip can be retained but these are usually canned projects solving some trivial problem that won’t really allow the students to go anywhere interesting with the project. I am not saying that’s the case but I remember at my undergrad and at the UC school that was the case.
There are graduate students unions or research assistant unions. Undergraduates (not ones working in a lab) don’t work for the university they are customers. It would be like members of a gym unionizing. I guess it could happen maybe.
I think the students should definitely be compensated.
However, in this case, it seems like this was some sort of partnership in which the company sponsored the research. As a current engineering undergrad, I believe this success will translate into some really good job offers after university.
Secondly, given that it’s expected to be adapted by other products, while it doesn’t explicitly state what the patent is for, we can expect that the technology will be used by other devices, so it’s not just that single company that will benefit.
Thirdly, I certainly don’t see why the university would benefit directly, as generally published academic writings are meant to be available for public use (except from the perspective of the evil publishing companies).
So while I’m with you in spirit, and given the vagaries of the article, we should find the positives when negatives are lacking.
The sad thing is the students who actually did the work will probably see no financial gain from this. Students pay to take a class and then a company pays the university for access to the students and the students ideas and work is used by a company with no financial benefit to the students. Everyone makes out except the students.
Actually unless they made it working for the university its normal for students to retain their IP rights.
I worked at a UC and companies retained all IP across all UCs and my undergrad school from the east coast was the same way. I’ve never heard of a university that let students keep their IP. I would imagine it would be hard to attract outside companies since the companies pay to be a part of the program. Can you point to a university program that allows students to retain their IP for senior design projects? I know if a student is doing a project through the school for a different class like a lab and they invent something or are volunteering the university has no claim to it but senior design is different.
Sure: https://www.research.psu.edu/otm/student_IP_guidance
This is something I’ve remember over hearing as well from a FOSS advocate as bit of complexity they deal with.
So it looks like for senior design classes the students don’t have to be associated with projects where they lose their IP rights. But sponsors have the right to say a project will give all IP to the sponsor. I imagine how this works in practice is all external companies will require they retain IP then the professor creates additional projects where ip can be retained but these are usually canned projects solving some trivial problem that won’t really allow the students to go anywhere interesting with the project. I am not saying that’s the case but I remember at my undergrad and at the UC school that was the case.
How come there are no student unions?
Then they’d have to start paying student ath-a-leets. 😉
There are graduate students unions or research assistant unions. Undergraduates (not ones working in a lab) don’t work for the university they are customers. It would be like members of a gym unionizing. I guess it could happen maybe.
Sure, here’s the revised version of your message:
I think the students should definitely be compensated.
However, in this case, it seems like this was some sort of partnership in which the company sponsored the research. As a current engineering undergrad, I believe this success will translate into some really good job offers after university.
Secondly, given that it’s expected to be adapted by other products, while it doesn’t explicitly state what the patent is for, we can expect that the technology will be used by other devices, so it’s not just that single company that will benefit.
Thirdly, I certainly don’t see why the university would benefit directly, as generally published academic writings are meant to be available for public use (except from the perspective of the evil publishing companies).
So while I’m with you in spirit, and given the vagaries of the article, we should find the positives when negatives are lacking.