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Comment by fumblebee | Hacker News Reader

My CS department formed an "industry partnership" with Microsoft (circa 2015).

All of a sudden, we were made to spend time learning Azure, we were given Surface Tablets for building apps, there were guest lectures by Microsoft employees, we were prompted to apply for MS internships, etc.

What the department intended to be a harmless collaboration, turned out to be an aggressive marketing push by Microsoft for hearts and minds of the students.

Thankfully, a backlash from the student body prompted a dampening of the relationship, but the experience showed that barriers to entry for corporations pushing their own agenda into academia can be low.

Managed properly, these sorts of relationships can be win-win, but there's a clear limit and universities should be conscious and forthright of where the line is.

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> there were guest lectures by Microsoft employees

Given that MS employs some seriously world-leading computer science academics, isn't this a great thing? I wish I got lectures from people like this!

That's well and good for you.

The academy is supposed to be its own free-standing institution with its own values and its own agenda. There are intelligent people who don't want to work with people who build mass surveillance systems, provide IT services to scary government agencies, crush competition, etc. Having Microsoft at a university should be like having ROTC at a university. You can opt in if you want, or avoid it if you want.

Didn't Hinton go to Canada so he didn't have to take DoD money?

You're far overreaching your definition of academia.

Archimedes worked for the military.

Feynman built an atomic bomb.

It depends if those lectures were from MSR or product development teams.

What if you don't want to work at Microsoft or Microsoft doesn't want you? Then you've just wasted a lot of time.

why does you not wanting to work for their employer make their guest lectures worthless?

I don't know if you're confused - it's not a job fair, they're collaborating on academics. And I presume they're academics giving lectures on academic topics, not just Microsoft-specific IT technology topics.

Hardware, training and bloody faang internships offered and the student body revolted? Jesus, if they did that where I was a student I would have celebrated.

My main grumble was the distinct lack of choice; we were _made_ to use Microsoft products and services. I didn't pay however much money to be wrapped up in an MS marketing/recruiting campaign that I couldn't opt out of.

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