FAQ

General Questions

Q: What is TTIC?

A: The Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) is a philanthropically endowed degree-granting institution dedicated to basic research and graduate education in computer science.

Q: What is the main mission of TTIC?

A: To achieve international impact through world-class research and education in fundamental computer science and information technology.

Q: How is TTIC funded?

A: TTIC has use of the interest accrued on a fund of approximately $200 million.

Q: Why was TTIC created?

A: TTI Japan decided that the best way to attract world-class faculty in computer science was to open a computer science institution in the U.S. We expect close collaboration between TTIC and TTI Japan.

Q: How large is TTIC expected to be?

A: TTIC plans to grow quickly to sixteen regular faculty (tenured and tenure track) and fourteen research assistant professors. The research assistant professor positions are described below.

Q: What sort of relationship exists between TTIC and the University of Chicago?

A: Formal agreements provide for the following mutually-beneficial arrangements:

• TTIC’s offices and classrooms are located on the University of Chicago campus.
• TTIC’s Faculty and students enjoy full privileges of the University library system, athletic facilities and other services.
• TTIC enjoys close academic ties with various departments of the University of Chicago.
• TTIC students may enroll in University of Chicago courses and University students may enroll in TTIC courses.
• With the powerful collaboration of TTIC and University of Chicago faculty, it is our joint goal to be competitive with the top ten computer science departments in the U.S.

Q: What areas of research is TTIC addressing?

A: TTIC is currently focusing on machine learning, algorithms and complexity, computer vision and computational photography, speech and language technologies, computational biology, and robotics.

Questions about Faculty

Q: Do TTIC faculty have tenure?

A: Regular faculty positions at the higher professorial ranks (Professor and Associate Professor) carry tenure. Learn more about faculty opportunities at TTIC here.

Q: What is the teaching load at TTIC?

A: There is no teaching requirement for research faculty. The teaching requirement for regular faculty is one course per year. More information on faculty opportunities at TTIC can be found here.

Q: Are TTIC faculty expected to get external research grants?

A: The funding situation at TTIC is similar to that at other computer science departments. Faculty typically obtain external funding covering students and summer salary. TTIC has various sources of internal funding, such as teaching assistantships and endowment-funded student fellowships, that augment external funding. Research assistant professors are provided with a discretionary fund sufficient for travel and modest equipment purchases. Research Assistant Professors are allowed to, but not necessarily expected to, be principal investigators and to obtain externally funded summer salaries.

Q: What is a Research Assistant Professor?

A: Research Assistant Professor is a non-tenure track position and carries a term of three years. There are no teaching requirements. This is similar to a postdoctoral fellowship position but comes with endowment-provided independent research funding. Learn more about RAPs at TTIC.

Questions about Students

Q: Does TTIC have its own graduate program?

A: Yes. TTIC is an accredited PhD program.

Comparable Institutions

Q: What other institutions are similar to TTIC?

A: TTIC is an endowed graduate-only academic computer science department with a teaching load of one quarter per year with a large fraction of the faculty in endowment-funded limited-term positions (the Research Assistant Profesors). In many respects TTIC is similar to a typical academic computer science department. However, the lack of undergraduate teaching, the light teaching load, and the endowment-based support make TTIC similar in some respects to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey.