% Required packages: % \usepackage{booktabs} % \usepackage{tabularx} % \usepackage{multirow} % \usepackage{array} % \usepackage[table]{xcolor} % optional, for alternating row colors \section{Budget and Budget Justification} \subsection{Budget Summary} The proposed research will be conducted over three (3) years, corresponding to the expected completion timeline for the PhD dissertation. Table~\ref{tab:budget} provides a detailed breakdown of costs by category and year. \begin{table}[htbp] \centering \caption{Proposed Budget by Year and Category} \label{tab:budget} \small \begin{tabular}{@{}lrrrr@{}} \toprule \textbf{Category} & \textbf{Year 1} & \textbf{Year 2} & \textbf{Year 3} & \textbf{Total} \\ \midrule \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Senior Personnel}} \\ \quad Faculty (PI Advisor, 1 mo.) & \$12,083 & \$12,566 & \$13,069 & \$37,718 \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Other Personnel}} \\ \quad Graduate Research Assistant & \$38,000 & \$39,520 & \$41,101 & \$118,621 \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Fringe Benefits}} \\ \quad Faculty Fringe Benefits (29.6\%) & \$3,577 & \$3,720 & \$3,868 & \$11,165 \\ \quad GRA Fringe Benefits (50\%) & \$19,000 & \$19,760 & \$20,551 & \$59,311 \\ \cmidrule{2-5} \quad \textit{Fringe Benefits Subtotal} & \$22,577 & \$23,480 & \$24,419 & \$70,476 \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Equipment}} \\ \quad (No equipment over \$5,000) & --- & --- & --- & --- \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Travel}} \\ \quad Conference Travel (Domestic) & \$4,000 & \$4,000 & \$4,000 & \$12,000 \\ \quad Industry Collaboration Visits & \$1,500 & \$1,500 & \$1,500 & \$4,500 \\ \cmidrule{2-5} \quad \textit{Travel Subtotal} & \$5,500 & \$5,500 & \$5,500 & \$16,500 \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Participant Support Costs}} \\ \quad (Not applicable) & --- & --- & --- & --- \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{Other Direct Costs}} \\ \quad \textit{Materials and Supplies:} & & & & \\ \quad \quad High-Performance Workstation & \$3,500 & --- & --- & \$3,500 \\ \quad \quad Laboratory Materials \& Supplies & \$1,500 & \$1,000 & \$1,000 & \$3,500 \\ \quad \textit{Publication Costs} & \$1,000 & \$1,500 & \$2,000 & \$4,500 \\ \quad \textit{Computing/Cloud Services} & \$1,500 & \$1,500 & \$1,500 & \$4,500 \\ \cmidrule{2-5} \quad \textit{Other Direct Costs Subtotal} & \$7,500 & \$4,000 & \$4,500 & \$16,000 \\ \addlinespace \midrule \textbf{Total Direct Costs} & \$85,660 & \$85,066 & \$88,589 & \$259,315 \\ \addlinespace \multicolumn{5}{l}{\textbf{H. Indirect Costs (F\&A)}} \\ \quad On-Campus Research (56\% MTDC) & \$35,326 & \$34,488 & \$35,935 & \$105,749 \\ \addlinespace \midrule \textbf{TOTAL PROJECT COST} & \$120,986 & \$119,554 & \$124,524 & \$365,064 \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{table} \subsection{Budget Justification} \subsubsection{Senior Personnel} \paragraph{Faculty Advisor} Funds are requested to support one month of summer salary per year for the faculty advisor (estimated at Associate Professor level, \$96,459/year base salary for 8 academic months = \$12,083/month). A 4\% annual salary increase is applied in subsequent years. \subsubsection{Other Personnel} \paragraph{Graduate Research Assistant (Principal Investigator)} Funds are requested to support one full-time graduate research assistant (the PI) for the entire duration of the project at \$38,000 per year in Year 1. This represents a standard graduate research assistantship stipend at the University of Pittsburgh for a PhD student in the Swanson School of Engineering. A 4\% annual salary increase is included in Years 2 and 3 to account for cost-of-living adjustments. \subsubsection{Fringe Benefits} \paragraph{Faculty Fringe Benefits} Faculty fringe benefits are calculated at 29.6\%, the University of Pittsburgh's approved rate for academic year faculty, covering retirement contributions, health insurance, and other benefits. \paragraph{Graduate Research Assistant Fringe Benefits} Fringe benefits for the GRA are calculated at 50\% of salary, consistent with University of Pittsburgh rates for graduate students on research assistantships. \subsubsection{Travel} \paragraph{Conference Travel (\$4,000 per year)} Funds are requested for the PI and faculty advisor to attend one major control systems conference annually to disseminate research results. The budget assumes domestic conference attendance with costs including: airfare, hotel, meals and incidentals, ground transportation, and registration for both attendees per conference. \paragraph{Industry Collaboration Visits (\$1,500 per year)} Funds are requested for travel to industry partner sites and potential nuclear facilities to: (1) validate reactor operating procedures with domain experts; (2) present research progress to industry stakeholders; (3) gather feedback on practical implementation considerations; and (4) explore deployment pathways for the developed technology. \subsubsection{Other Direct Costs} \paragraph{Materials and Supplies} \textit{High-Performance Workstation (\$3,500, Year 1):} A dedicated high-performance workstation is required for computationally intensive tasks including. The workstation specifications include: Intel Core i9 or AMD Ryzen 9 processor (minimum 16 cores), 64 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe SSD storage, and NVIDIA GPU for potential acceleration of numerical computations. \textit{Laboratory Materials and Supplies (\$1,500 Year 1; \$1,000 Years 2--3):} Funds are requested for laboratory supplies and materials including: electronic components and sensors for hardware integration, cables and connectors for hardware-in-the-loop setup, and miscellaneous computing accessories such as external storage devices and backup media. \paragraph{Publication Costs} Funds are requested to cover publication fees for disseminating research results in high-quality peer-reviewed venues. Budget includes: \begin{itemize} \item Year 1 (\$1,000): Conference proceedings fees and one journal submission \item Year 2 (\$1,500): Open-access publication charges for first major journal paper \item Year 3 (\$2,000): Open-access publication charges for dissertation-culminating journal papers \end{itemize} Open-access publication is prioritized to maximize research impact and accessibility, particularly important for work with potential nuclear safety applications. Many high-impact journals (IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Automatica) charge \$1,000--\$2,000 for open access. \paragraph{Computing and Cloud Services} Funds are requested for cloud computing resources and online services. Cloud computing provides scalable computational resources for particularly demanding verification problems without requiring additional capital equipment purchases. \subsubsection{H. Indirect Costs (Facilities \& Administrative)} Indirect costs are calculated at 56\% of Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC), which is the University of Pittsburgh's federally negotiated rate for on-campus research. MTDC includes all direct costs except equipment purchases over \$5,000, tuition remission, and certain other exclusions. The calculation base includes all personnel costs, travel, and other direct costs as shown in the budget table.