Sponsoring the Ptolemy Project
The Ptolemy project relies heavily on sponsorship from industry.
The interaction with industry and the pressure to address problems
that are considered important in industry have had a major positive
impact on the project. Much of the funding for the project has come
from industry. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor,
the following information may be useful.
Two levels of sponsorship are common:
- Supporting students.
- Enrolling in the Berkeley Microelectronics Affiliates program (BMA).
Most industrial support for research is treated by the University
as an "unrestricted gift", which means that the University waives overhead
charges. Thus, the entire contribution goes to supporting the research
project, and none of it goes to buildings, campus maintenance or
utility expenses. Checks are made out to "The Regents of the University
of California," and the cover letter should indicate that support is
intended for the Project, directed by Professor Edward A. Lee.
Supporting Students
The cost of supporting a student (stipend, travel, equipment, and pro-rated
portion of staff support) is approximately $40,000 per year.
California companies can usually get partial matching funds from
the State of California through the
MICRO program.
In this case, a contribution of approximately $25,000 per student is sufficient.
Benefits resulting from this type
of sponsorship are detailed below.
Sponsorship entails the following specific benefits (note that nonsponsors
also get access to the software and publications, although usually not
as promptly):
- Membership in the College of Engineering
Industrial Liaison Program.
- Regular updates on the progress of the Ptolemy project (we currently make
monthly reports available by email (if you want them -- not everyone
does) and annual reports on paper).
- Regular updates on publications from the group.
- Access to all software with the freedom to modify, extend, or resell,
subject only to minimal constraints (detailed in our copyright notice).
These constraints are designed only to (1) ensure that Berkeley gets
credit for its contribution, and (2) to ensure that Berkeley is not held
liable for defects in the software.
- Invitation to project reviews with preferential registration.
- Informal support for the software.
While we cannot commit to provide support for anyone, we make every effort
to respond quickly to problems that sponsors may have with the 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).
For longer term visitors, you must join the BMA program.
Berkeley Microelectronics Affiliates
BMA membership requires $140,000 per year.
The major additional benefit (over those of supporting a student)
is the right to place a resident Fellow in the department.
This is a significant benefit, in that it allows for in-depth
interaction and far more effective technology transfer than any
other mechanism. Moreover, this is a nontrivial concession,
since office space and the associated infrastructure
is a particularly scarce commodity in our department.
Further details of this program are provided by the
Industrial Liaison Program office.
Contact
The main contact for sponsorship issues is:
Edward A. Lee Professor
phone: 510-642-0455 EECS Dept., Cory Hall
fax: 510-642-2739 University of California
email:eal@eecs.Berkeley.EDU Berkeley, CA 94720
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eal
Last updated 05/13/97.
Send comments to
www@ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu.