[eastWestMath]

>Why should a person who pays a university to give them a project to do get a degree and recognition

I have a few issues with this comment. I am a graduate student and while I personally work on the theory side, I have labmates involved in these sorts of projects.

We have to get chosen to work on a project (accepted to grad program, given funding, taken on as a student by a PL researcher) - these steps are all based on the merits of our undergraduate work, we are not simply paying to work on the project. We are directed by an expert in the field, given mentoring, and work on our projects 30-50 hours a week. It should not be surprising that most significant recognition-worthy work in programming language theory occurs in this environment.

[setr]

And aren't research masters / phds almost never actually paying for university, after getting a research position? Paying for the degree is for undergrads and "professionals"

[eastWestMath]

That’s exactly why saying our projects get recognition “just because we’re paying for a degree” is insulting. Getting into these research groups and receiving funding is usually pretty competitive, and we spend a lot of time on these projects while being supervised by experts. It should not be hard to believe that this leads to better work.

[prestonbriggs]

My impression, for computer science PhDs in the US, is that there's generally plenty of funding. On the other hand, they may have to search among professors and schools to find it.

[pjmlp]

And even then it depends, not all countries require paying for universities as undergrad.

[gravypod]

> We are directed by an expert in the field, given mentoring, and work on our projects 30-50 hours a week. It should not be surprising that most significant recognition-worthy work in programming language theory occurs in this environment.

Yet there are still people who do not need this guidance and who are still making equally moving contributions but are not recognized or rewarded for their work.

Also by receiving grant money in your name you are paying to go to university.

[eastWestMath]

>Yet there are still people who do not need this guidance and who are still making equally moving contributions but are not recognized or rewarded for their work.

And there’s substantially more people spinning their wheels and wasting their time, and they don’t even know enough to understand what they’re doing uninteresting.

>Also by receiving grant money in your name you are paying to go to university.

What does that even mean. You realize that working for free on an open source project is closer to “paying to work on a project”, right?