[Courses] [Careers] Artificial intelligence researcher

[Mary]

On Fri, Feb 04, 2005, Sue Stones wrote:
> How does this work?  Where did your co-authour get the money to
> support you (his own business?) and what does he get in return?  It
> sounds as though the arrangement didn't involve you working for him
> once you finished your masters.  How are you financing you PhD?

Was he an academic, Terri?

I think it's pretty typical in North America for academics to support
students out of their grant money. In fact, in your grant application
you would probably say something like "I want to have X PhD students and
Y postdoctoral researchers work on this problem".

In Australia where the government gives living allowances to (some) PhD
students this still happens, but you apply for what's called a 'top-up'
instead: "I wish to have Y postdoctoral researchers, and to give some
extra money to X PhD students."

Typically what they get in return is an extra researcher on their
project. It's not usual to require extra work after the end of the
project, but then, that's not usual in the employment market either! (A
PhD student is more like an apprentice than a student: considered
capable of doing work but under more supervision than would be usual for
a collegue.)

-Mary