[scorpioxy]

But is there money in that market? My previous (limited) experience with the academic work showed that there is hardly any money to be made. At least not enough to live off.

As far as getting insights goes, the academics that I worked with had no idea about the industry or even how it works. So any insight coming from them is one better ignored.

I'm mistaken perhaps?

[mahmud]

There is absolutely no money, but it also costs very little to eye-ball an ancient app, and write a spec for it for ungrads to implement.

The universities usually have all the technical know-how they need to sustain themselves, they just need to talk amongst themselves (department to department, campus to campus, or uni to uni.) If CS students were told to make software for other departments; architecture students were told to design study halls, stages and learning areas; art students were told to beautify school buildings, hold performances, educate, entertain, enlighten, etc. All the university would need is just someone to facilitate the interactions, introduce people to each other, and the rest can be done via Redmine or Basecamp.

Some of the projects are insanely interesting. In Australia, I was offered a non-pay gig to work with sensors in the field, traveling to beautiful beach areas and hacking x86 assembly. Universities can afford room and board, but not much else, sadly.