Support a Graduate Student

Micropayments for Big Ideas

Doing research at a university is fun. Graduate students, both at the MS and PhD levels, carry out most of the work, learning how to work independently in addition to developing advanced technical skills. Graduate students are smart and motivated. Much of the work they do is cutting edge; I expect all of my students to do work worthy of publication in top research conferences. So, when you consider how little it takes to support a graduate student for a year, graduate student research really is best described by the phrase "micropayments for big ideas."

Research

The Enterprise Computing Lab (ECLab) at BYU is currently conducting research in digital identity, Web services, and virtualization. Here are some ideas I've had for Masters level research and some open questions I've posed as potential PhD topics. Of course, the best ideas usually come from the students themselves. I'd love to talk to you about your ideas for research in these or related areas. Putting a bright, energetic grad student to work on your problem may be the lowest-risk approach to exploring some of your innovative ideas.

How Much Does it Cost?

To be effective researchers, grad students need money for tuition, medical insurance, and living expenses. In general, it costs about $30,000 to hire a graduate student for a year including benefits. Thus a research program like mine with 6 or 7 grad students consumes $200-$250K per year not including capital and travel expenses. Very little of this money comes from the University itself--most of it must come from external resources.

If you or your company would like to help support research in the ECLab and, more importantly, the grad students who carry it out, the following are levels of support you might consider:

• Full-time tuition (BYU): $2155 per semester
• Married student medical insurance: $2254 per semester
• Wages: $6000 per semester (depends on student)
• Travel to conference: $2000 per trip (domestic)
• Graduate student: $30,000 per year

If these are too much for you, even small donations of $100 or $200 help.

How You Can Help

If you'd like to support graduate students in the ECLab, email me or call (801.494.1079) to discuss possible research projects and how you can contribute. Donations that support research at Brigham Young University can be tax deductible and I can promise you that 100% of your money will be used to support students.

Tweet

Last Modified: Wednesday, 09-Nov-2005 08:43:32 MST