FSP's student has been using his personal computer for research, and now it's broken - who should pay for repair?
I am surprised at the range of responses: from "how dare he ask?" to "of course he should not pay for it himself".
There are several issues here: let's forget about backup issues for a second. Say no data is lost - would it be fair to ask for repair? My answer is Yes.
I use my computer (paid for through grants) for personal use, such as typing up this blog. I suspect FSP does too. But she doesn't want to purchase her student a computer because she is afraid they will also use it for personal use?
If FSP bought a laptop for the student, she would also have to pay for repairs. So FSP saved 2 grand or so on original purchase and is trying to save more on repairs - all at expense of a student. One of the commenters is correct - it's equivalent to asking students to pay for purchasing research equipment out of their own pocket, and then requesting they pay for repair of said equipment as well.
Some people argue that if FSP was concerned that the student would use the laptop for personal reasons, she should have purchased a desktop instead. First of all, use of desktop does not preclude use of computer for personal reasons (I did a lot of that when I was in grad school). But most importantly - getting someone a laptop instead of a desktop is good for everyone - you get improved productivity, because the student or a postdoc can now work anywhere - home, office, plane, cafe, etc. It's like coffee - the best money you can spend to improve efficiency.
Now we get to the backup - I am always amazed about how little some PI's care about data backup. As experimentalists, data is the most precious asset we have. This is why we do experiments - so we can have *data*!
Blaming the student for not backing the data up is just not right - the students don't know any better. As a PI, it is MY responsibility to make sure data is backed up - pointing fingers after the fact won't help. Saying once or twice during group meetings "Make sure your data is backed up" is not sufficient. Make SURE the data is backed up. And then check again. Ask to see the backed up files. I have multiple backup options (hard drives, network backup, data on remote servers) - you can never be too paranoid about accidental loss of data.
As a final verdict - I have to disagree with FSP on both counts. Employees should be provided with equipment to do their jobs - and students are no different. IF they decide to use their own money (we all know how much students make) to buy computers, the least PI should do is offer support in terms of fixing/maintenance - it's only fair as we just saved a lot of $$$.
As to backup issues - the buck stops with PI.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
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7 comments:
good story.
computer repair , computer support , computer help
While I do not disagree with some of the things you said, I think that it is not as black and white as you make it out to be. For example, consider the following possibilities
1. Lab has a computer for research that is slow, but usable. PI will not buy a faster computer (happens all the time). Student buys one for himself. Is the PI then responsible for not providing enough equipment?
2. PI will buy a laptop/desktop for the student, but will not buy the model that the student wants because the student wants some non-essential hardware (non-essential for research, that is). Student goes ahead and buys the computer for himself. Who pays if it breaks?
I agree about the backups. The PI is responsible for the backups, and should pay for backing things up or retrieving data. As an aside, I never heard of a data-taking laptop in a serious experiment. And I never heard of a serious experimentalist not backing up data about 55 times.
OK, let me throw in my two cents. I think I fall right between IP and FSP on this one.
1) Who should pay for repairs ?
This is pretty clear cut, in my opinion.
If equipment does not belong to students, was purchased by the PI for the purpose of giving it to them, and returns to the PI when students graduate (to be used by others in the group), then it's the PI's responsibility to pay for service and upgrades.
If, on the other hand, students opt to purchase their own laptop instead of using the one from the PI (admittedly not necessarily the latest and greatest model -- laptop, that is, not PI), then it's their responsibility to pay for maintenance.
That's what I myself have done on a regular basis, for years now. It is obvious, and fully understood that students will use loaned laptops in part for work-unrelated activity. I personally could not care less, as long as what they do is legal, and as long as they also do some research, every once in a while.
2) Whose responsibility is it to back up data ?
It breaks my heart, IP, but I so disagree with you on this one. It is our job to teach students how to do research, and that includes (and is not limited to) using lab equipment safely, writing decent code, drafting proposals, giving talks and yes, backing up data.
When we sign off on their PhD theses, we state to the rest of the community that they are competent researchers, i.e., will not kill themselves or others in the lab, can program a simple loop, know how to write a reply to a referee, and for %$#^ sake, will back up the data (not that I have had bad experiences with that -- not at all).
Students will forget once, twice, but the third time they are getting an earful from me (pretty much like, I am sure, they'll get it from you the third time they blow up an expensive piece of equipment).
I find it hard to believe that all PI's offer students a laptop. They might not object if asked by the student, but I just cannot see them giving the student the option, specially in not top-ranked departments/groups.
A lot of students already have a laptop, and they just keep using it for research. It is not like they joined a group and then bought the fanciest computer in the market just because.
IF the student wants a laptop with some non-essential things, can the PI pay for the computer he/she thinks is needed and the student put the remaining? That way, any student can have the computer they want at no extra cost to the PI. If a non-essential thing fails the student pays for it, otherwise the PI?
On backing up the data, although the student should be aware of the pain losing data represents not only the student pays, also the PI and sometimes even the whole group. There is no loss in double-checking the data is safe. What we do in the group I am in is every week during group meetings, we backup our data, that way in the worst case scenario only a week's work is lost.
One extra comment, even though an old, slow computer is cheaper to the PI a new, faster one can greatly reduce the time spent analyzing data. It is not like windows or Mac OS run smoothly in any computer.
Ari, computers are really cheap these days. The reason why I (and many others, actually) offer students to purchase desktops/laptops for their use, is because I want to make sure that they will all be able to run the same basic software that we use in our group, including codes that we have developed, as well as the same presentation and publishing packages. It saves a lot of time and aggravation.
As for backing up the data: I might agree that the PI has the responsibility of providing storage (but that too is no real problem these days), and possibly do an additional backup in case something goes wrong; however, the primary responsibility of backing up the data for their own research rests with the students, in my opinion.
Not providing access to fast and reasonably state of the art computers is just unacceptable in this day and age. The cost-benefit analysis is straightforward: you can get a reasonably good new laptop for about $1,000. Assuming it lasts about 3 years before replacement, and assuming a student salary+tuition cost grants about 30-40 grand a year (not including overhead) - the laptop costs are adding about 1% of total costs to hiring a student. So the real question - does having access to reasonably fast computer for data analysis, writing papers etc. make a student at least 1% more efficient? Does it mean manuscript that would otherwise take 3 months to write can be finished in 2.97 months instead?
arl - I agree that not every PI offers all students a laptop as soon as they join the group - but many do, even though they may wait till the students have settled in the group, and some may wait for students to ask them, instead of offering up front. And that's fine - but if PI gets to the point where the personal computers are used for data collection and analysis, to the extent that the student's personal laptop becomes the only place where data is stored - it becomes an integral part of the laboratory equipment, and so there's even more reasons to offer to pay for repair.
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