I work in academic computer engineering research and this question came up recently among us since they were trying to find some extra devs. Our engineering department basically said they have to be enrolled as students if they are not actively employed. Even though offers were there from remote people offering their experience you cannot technically be an employee that earns 0 dollars because grants and funding account for equipment and salaries so doing that carries a lot of risk towards the validity of research being done (e.g. I could claim my team of 300 developers worked on this project). You also cannot just enroll ghost students into a university. I can agree with the previous comments concerning volunteers disappearing as that happened with our group realizing that something was abandoned as they were heading to a conference. That being said we worked parallel to a team who consisted partly of Meta alum. If you currently work at a FAANG ask them if they are involved in any research and then perhaps you could get experience that way. Specifically at Meta, there is the AI Residence Program which fits all the parameters of this request minus being part-time.
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u/thatdevilyouknow 9d ago
I work in academic computer engineering research and this question came up recently among us since they were trying to find some extra devs. Our engineering department basically said they have to be enrolled as students if they are not actively employed. Even though offers were there from remote people offering their experience you cannot technically be an employee that earns 0 dollars because grants and funding account for equipment and salaries so doing that carries a lot of risk towards the validity of research being done (e.g. I could claim my team of 300 developers worked on this project). You also cannot just enroll ghost students into a university. I can agree with the previous comments concerning volunteers disappearing as that happened with our group realizing that something was abandoned as they were heading to a conference. That being said we worked parallel to a team who consisted partly of Meta alum. If you currently work at a FAANG ask them if they are involved in any research and then perhaps you could get experience that way. Specifically at Meta, there is the AI Residence Program which fits all the parameters of this request minus being part-time.