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How Uber Turned Carnegie Mellon Into a Minor Nursery For Its Research Division (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the he-who-pays-the-piper dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A year after Uber announced a collaboration with the Robotics Department of Carnegie Mellon University, not a single project has been developed. The ride-sharing company set up its Advanced Technologies Center on CMU's doorstep in 2015 and promptly 'compensated' the poaching of 40 of the University's best talent with a $5.5 million grant, leaving CMU with a staff crisis. The university is taking the appropriation philosophically, and considering the relationship as symbiotic. In the meantime Uber is rapidly co-opting Carnegie Mellon into a feeding ground for its own labs, moving a great deal of robotics research out of academic transparency into the realm of jealously-guarded corporate secrets.

5 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Where do you think it was before? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    out of academic transparency

    See all of those corporate logos all over Red Team's vehicles? Do you really think CMU published the coolest stuff they developed?

    https://www.fastcompany.com/10...

    http://www.equipmentworld.com/...

    https://www.saic.com/

    https://www.tttech.com/

    jealously-guarded corporate secrets.

    Patents are anything but that. In fact they tell the world exactly how you do something.

  2. Where the researchers slaves? by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    'compensated' the poaching of 40 of the University's best talent with a $5.5 million grant

    Why did they even have to compensate for people? Was it a slave-purchasing transaction?

    The entire write-up (and, likely, TFA as well) can be rewritten with the opposite spin: about Uber offering wonderful opportunities to the researchers allowing the school to concentrate on what universities do best — educate.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Where the researchers slaves? by Indigo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, it's perfectly legal. As you said, the researchers aren't slaves. But it's still a huge fuck job. As a result of the "partnership", CMU is now down 40 top staff members, which was probably not mentioned in the original CMU / Uber partnership discussions, and affects them materially. For instance, in their ability continue providing quality education to current students, and their ability to recruit new students who aren't interested in doing research for Uber. I'd doubt that $5 million even begins to cover the damage.

  3. CMU can be trusted with secrets ! by swell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They proved that by their collaboration with the FBI while attacking the TOR network ... which they created in collaboration with the Department of Defense.
    https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

    If Uber wants a partner to secretly develop 'jealously-guarded corporate secrets' Carnegie Mellon is where it's at. A student looking for an education might best look elsewhere as CMU priorities have changed.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
    1. Re:CMU can be trusted with secrets ! by sociocapitalist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They proved that by their collaboration with the FBI while attacking the TOR network ... which they created in collaboration with the Department of Defense.
      https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

      If Uber wants a partner to secretly develop 'jealously-guarded corporate secrets' Carnegie Mellon is where it's at. A student looking for an education might best look elsewhere as CMU priorities have changed.

      I'd say that a CMU student is learning very well how the world works.

      --
      blindly antisocialist = antisocial