Hello all,

I am looking to visit a company this week, and present to them about my research. I am in the first year of my engineering PhD and would like to make the most of my visit. Maybe even collaborate with the company for research. Does anyone have any advice/experiences working with industry on there research, both successful and not so successful (in terms of your PhD) with some thoughts of how you might do things differently knowing what you know now.

Thanks

I have to deal with companies all the time for research and am sponsored by one. The only real way they will collaborate with you is if they get something concrete out of it. They will not be interested 'for interests sake'. Giving them something for free that they pay for at the moment is good, or that would cost them a lot of money (but not just a 'free' researcher - they probably couldn't care less). The best thing is to consult with them about what they are looking for, but go prepared with a few ideas about what you could offer them.

This may mean compromising your study aims or the rigour of your approach though.

A good example could be that 'if they are currently using 3 axis machining and you can offer em 6 axis at a fraction of cost so that they can layoff 100 employees to save money then of course they will take you on board...otherwise not this is business afterall.

Just don't let those 100 employees find out where you live!

lol