Advisors

All project members (Purdue faculty advisors, The Data Mine staff, teaching assistants, students) working with a COMPANY sign a confidentiality agreement which allows for their respective compensation. This means that work related to the project remains with the COMPANY in all circumstances.

Therefore, we request that Purdue University employees refrain from offering inventive works. This allows staff to retain their IP with the goal of providing a challenging educational experience for the students to solve problems on their own (to the extent that they are capable at this point in their education and experience).

By having students come to their COMPANY for inventive support, the COMPANY (in its sponsor role) has the first opportunity to engage more closely with students. This provides additional perspectives into opportunities and challenges that might spur insights and inventions by staff of the COMPANY. This allows enhancement of the students' problem-solving experience and more visibility to the COMPANY for high-value opportunities.

A case can additionally be made that there is an advantage for COMPANY to understand the sources of student helps to minimize the possibility of restricted use information being introduced into the student’s work (e.g., a university employee introducing restricted use information received from another university client).