Member companies engage with Stanford student teams, faculty, and staff — proposing projects, sharing knowledge, and connecting with emerging talent.
Elite member companies have the opportunity to draft a project concept for consideration as a seed project a student team may work on in a class that matches well with the learning opportunities of the project. There may be a possibility of extending aspects of the work into additional quarters after the class. By proposing a project, the company commits to the timely sharing of data and knowledge and mentorship of the student group. If desired and mutually agreeable, the student group visits a site of the member company at the end of the quarter (e.g., during the break) to explain their project methodology, receive feedback, or work with a small group of company engineers and managers to continue the project.
Member companies have the opportunity to engage with a student team on an existing IIL seed student project contingent on the need of the student team. Typical engagements include, but are not limited to, sharing and performance analysis of current best practices, testing of frameworks, concepts, and software prototypes on projects, workshops for problem definition or student validation, and connection with synergistic ongoing projects at the affiliate’s organization or their industry, government, or academic leaders.
IIL facilitates connections between students engaged in IIL projects and companies to offer industry experiences to students and transfer engineering and management methods formalized at the IIL to industry practice.
Elite IIL members with projects in flight have the possibility by mutual agreement for student teams working on the project to present work at a designated corporate location; often corporate headquarters.
At the end of each academic year, the IIL hosts the Stanford Software Fair which comprises student project work across a number of classes. There are typically between 30 to 60 projects on display in a trade show style format. Elite member companies are invited to join as guests and are also invited, if desired, to serve as “judges” of the projects. Being a judge affords the opportunity to address the entire software fair by saying a few words about the company and its mission and then acknowledging the work of one or more student teams that the company found particularly compelling.
| Membership level | Elite Membership |
Associate Membership |
Small Business Membership |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $75,000 | $40,000 | $12,000 |
| Participate in Seed IIL projects | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Invitation to the Annual Software Fair | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Draft seed projects | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Facilitated Recruiting of students | ✓ | ||
| Opportunity for Onsite Presentations | ✓ | ||
| Opportunity to judge at the annual Software Fair | ✓ |
“Member companies may provide additional funding. All research results arising from the use of the additional funding will be shared with all program members and the general public. A member company may request the additional funding be used to support a particular area of program research identified on the program’s website, or the program research of a named faculty member, as long as the faculty is identified on the program website as participating in the Affiliate Program. In either instance, the director of the Affiliate Program will determine how the additional funding will be used in the program’s research."
Reach out to discuss which membership level is the best fit for your organization.