A PhD Built for the Real World

In late July, the White House and National Science Foundation announced in the right-leaning tech publication, Pirate Wires, that, beginning this fall, they would be establishing a $47 million program to fund around 250 four-year Industry-Integrated PhD (I-PhD) Scholars in technical fields. The NSF will be funding three of those four years, and 31 universities and 20 companies will be funding the rest—those who have submitted letters of interest include companies like Dow Chemical Company and Lockheed Martin, as well as colleges like Columbia University, North Carolina State University, and the Ohio State University. Students in the pilot program will...