11.1) Who gets to travel

Dr. Webber’s goal for graduate students is that they will travel to conferences 2-3 times/year. The goal is for PhD students to take at least one international trip during the course of their dissertation research. Graduate students are encouraged to travel to present their work at conferences organized by relevant professional societies or industrial groups.  Generally speaking, Dr. Webber will pay for graduate students to present their work at conferences with reasonable fees (<$250 or less for student registration). If the conference is more expensive, then more justification will have to be provided for why the conference is worth attending.  Dr. Webber will also sometimes pay for graduate students to attend conferences even if they aren’t presenting if 1) it’s a trip the entire group is taking (for example, sometimes the entire group will attend the ASME or AAAS annual meeting to conduct a group activity or retreat ), or 2) the conference topic is very closely aligned with the student’s research and attending would offer direct benefit to their work.  Dr. Webber rarely pays for undergraduates to travel unless they are presenting their work or if it’s a group trip and the undergraduate has been an active member of the group for well over a year.

Graduate students are encouraged to apply for travel grants (e.g. UT Graduate School Professional Development Award, Graduate Engineering Council Travel Grant) to attend academic conferences, particularly if they are presenting original research. Some conferences (like AAAS Annual Meeting) will waive registration fees in exchange for students offering to volunteer for a specific number of hours.