COLLABORATE WITH US

Real Projects. Real Collaboration. Real Impact.

Partner with our student teams to move important projects forward while supporting hands-on experiential learning.
Empowering future leaders.

Partner With Us

iConsult will engage your organization with our students using a simple non-disclosure agreement that is signed by the University, each student on your project team, and you. You keep all ownership of your intellectual property and anything we do for you, and you safeguard your proprietary information.

We can do lots of information-related things for you. Our project teams are made up mostly of graduate students with some undergraduates. These students are majoring in programs like Information Systems, Information Management, Data Analytics/Data Science, Computer Science, Public Administration/Policy, Marketing, User Experience Design, Business Process Analysis/Automation, Education, Law, etc.

They can help you to collect data, store it, analyze it, convert it, combine it, report it, clean it, prepare it, structure it, present it, and make decisions about it! Whether you have hundreds, thousands or millions of things to track, we’ll help you figure it out. We’ll even recommend solutions for software or systems that can help you leverage the right tools for all of this if you don’t already have them.

Our projects are best defined in “chunks” that we can deliver in a few weeks at a time. We’ll help you figure out these chunks, so no worries. Projects are not restricted to classes, semesters or any particular block of time. Some of our clients have been with us for years for one project after another. We assign your project to one of our paid Program Managers – graduate students who are specializing in project leadership – and they work as your designated project manager to recruit, organize and manage your project team for you.

Meet the Team
A diverse team collaborating in a modern office environment with a digital display.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know before getting started.

The best way to begin a client relationship with the iConsult Collaborative is to select the “Start a conversation with us” button below. That will take you to an iConsult Client Application form, where you can enter contact information and a summary of your potential project, and that form will be sent to Dr. Art Thomas, Director of the iConsult Collaborative. Then, he’ll get in touch with you about next steps. If you aren’t very sure about a potential project yet, or if you have other questions, send an email to Art Thomas at apthomas@syr.edu. Mention in that email what you have in mind for a possible project, or any other questions you have, and Art will get back to you with next steps. Normally what happens next is the arrangement of a meeting (usually virtual) where Art can discuss with your organization how things work, and what he would recommend for best next steps for everyone to take.

Most students who work with the iConsult Collaborative are graduate students, but all students on project teams have been vetted through an application process and interviews. Some students will be more experienced than others, but the point of the program is to provide an opportunity for professional growth for all who are involved. We want clients to understand that we are not the equivalent of a professional consulting firm – instead we are a win-win service, where students gain practical application of their knowledge, while the organization gains the opportunity to make progress toward their information-related goals. We select students for skills related to your project, for attitude and ownership of responsibility, and for their willingness to volunteer their time while building their practical experience. Students can only work part-time on these projects, but we encourage the establishment of measurable outcomes that can be delivered in priority order for your organization.

We do not charge any fees for our services.  There are some projects that require special software or other tools and resources.  The organization is responsible for procurement of these items if it is agreed that the items are a necessary element of the service to be provided.  However, in this situation, the project team will review options with you first before any assumptions are made.  You determine what happens next.

There are expenses that the University provides to support the iConsult Collaborative.  If your organization is interested in supporting some of these expenses, we can make arrangements for a tax-deductible donation from your organization directly to the program.  However, such a donation is entirely optional and it is never required in return for iConsult Collaborative services.

The student teams in iConsult work as volunteers, both for your benefit and theirs.  Our Program Managers are paid to manage your team and the project for you.   If your organization is interested in supporting some of these expenses, we can make arrangements for a tax-deductible donation from your organization directly to the program.  However, such a donation is entirely optional and it is never required in return for iConsult Collaborative services.

On the other hand, if you wish to hire a student to function as a paid employee or intern of your organization, we can work out ways for that to take place.  However, that changes the dynamics of the relationship by directly paying a student for work received, so that is not something that the iConsult Collaborative is allowed to do.  In that instance, you would take on the oversight of that student.  We can assign a volunteer team to work with them as a member of your staff.  Contact us if you would like to discuss options for hiring students, and we’ll let you know how we can help best. 

You can download a copy of the iConsult Collaborative Non-Disclosure Agreement by selecting the “Download NDA” button below. Fields highlighted in yellow are for your completion. Once you have completed the information and signed it, our Vice-Chancellor of the University will sign for us. Students assigned to your team will each sign the last Exhibit and you will be given copies.

The iConsult Collaborative at Syracuse University works year-round, so we can theoretically begin a project at any time.   However, we know there are times when more students are available than others.  During the period of late August to early May, students are actively engaged in classes at the University, so we have the greatest quantity of available students from which to build our project teams during this general period of time.  We find that students have heavy assignment/study requirements in the periods associated with mid-terms (portions of October and March) and finals (portions of early December and late April).  Many students are traveling during the University’s winter break period of mid-December to mid-January.  Summer internships are normally engaged between early June and late August, so students who are hired for these on a full-time basis are not as able to function on iConsult projects during their internship period.  

Your assigned Program Manager will work out scheduling details with each member of your student project team and keep you informed as to the availability of team members and if there will be impact on project progress.  We ask our Clients for their patience in recognizing that students are available to you at no charge because they are students, but that also means that their top priority will be their study.  We will all do everything we can to ensure that your project gets the effort it deserves to reach conclusion in a timely manner.

Generally, we recommend that a primary contact be assigned from your organization to serve as a project manager on your side. Our Program Managers will interact directly with them and anyone else that they choose. Besides the effort your organization will need in order to prepare information or resources internally so that our teams can proceed with their work on your project, we generally recommend an hour per week for a status meeting with your iConsult team. In between those meetings, you may have deliverables to review or options to consider. We do our best to minimize your effort while we work to deliver results both early and often throughout the project.

The iConsult Collaborative can work with any internal Syracuse University department. In this case, our student team members will sign their portion of the non-disclosure agreement for your project, but the overall agreement is not necessary for you to sign since we are all operating together as one organization.

Download NDA

Ready to start a project?

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