Dollars for Profs
Dig Into University Researchers' Outside Income and Conflicts of Interest
Published Dec. 6, 2019
This database was last updated in December 2019 and should only be used as a historical snapshot. There may be new or amended records not reflected here.
Financial Disclosure
The University of Texas System provided all data on outside professional activity of faculty and staff from all campuses from 2016 to 2019. All university employees are required to disclose outside work or activities, which are reviewed for potential conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment.
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Charles Upshaw
University of Texas, Austin, Department: Me Pi Webber
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IdeaSmiths LLC
We formed IdeaSmiths in early July of 2013 (I don't remember the exact date). We formed this company to handle small consulting side-projects in a consolidated manner. I (through IdeaSmiths) work on consulting projects generally in the same area as my research expertise (energy systems modeling, etc.), so there could reasonably be a perceived conflict of interest since they are in the same area (this is how it has been explained to me in prior Conflict of Interest Management Plans). Our (IdeaSmiths) consulting work and research work do not directly overlap (in terms of research/publishing on our clients' work, or working for clients who are sponsoring research), and consulting work is primarily application of engineering methods and analyses techniques to the client's specific problem. Since this work is performed by in addition to UT employment, it could be perceived as a potential conflict of commitment. However, the consulting work through IdeaSmiths is limited, and projects are occasional and small in scope/time commitment. This work is not a steady part-time second job, and is fit into free time hours around the regular working day.
Filed on July 06, 2013.
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Notes: When a more specific filing date is not available for an individual financial disclosure or conflict of interest form, we use the year the form was filed. If the year was not disclosed, we report the range of years covered by our public records requests. In a few cases, a start date was provided instead of a filing date. In those cases, we use the start date instead.
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