Company FAQs

How long does a project last?

The programme is typically four years long. Students are normally embedded in their host company for three of those years. We are mindful of the disparity between production cycles in industry in academia and students are able to submit a portfolio thesis of discreet but interconnected projects.

How are the projects chosen?

Projects should come from a real need affecting your business and the wider-industry. We can work with you to tailor these problems to fit a robust R&D framework that will benefit your business and allow the student to gain the Engineering Doctorate.

How are students allocated?

Once we are aware of your research needs, we can suggest suitable candidates that fit your profile. You will choose who to interview and who to offer the position to. We will only contract with you when you’ve found a student you wish to work with. We believe it’s important for the success of the programme that industry is as involved in the recruitment process as possible.

Can my existing staff join the programme?

We do currently have projects where pre-existing staff have joined the CDE programme. There are particular considerations with this route, but we are happy to discuss them with you.

What type of projects do you support?

A good CDE project needs an element of novelty; it should be a non-trivial problem that breaks new ground while answering a real need for your business.

The CDE has research strengths in all areas of graphics, visualisation and simulation. We have particular expertise in graphics, vision, artificial intelligence, robotics, interaction, psychology, architecture, curation, animation, film and games.

We have many years practical experience of collaborating with industry.

What do you do about Intellectual Property (IP)?

We believe our partners are best placed to exploit the projects results. Generally all IP generated by the project rests with the host company. The background contributions of all partners are protected.

We also ask for the right of the student to publish papers and ultimately their thesis. We are used to working with partners to ensure academic publications won’t contain any business sensitive information.

Can I speak to other companies who already work with you?

Yes. We have good relationships with our partners with many of them taking multiple or repeat students. We are happy to put you in touch with a similar company to your own so that you can discuss how they have made the CDE programme work for them.