Many of those academic positions are just for show, so that another university can't lay claim on them. University of Washington has many 'sponsored' positions

Many of those academic positions are just for show, so that another university can't lay claim on them. University of Washington has many 'sponsored' positions, but basically what it amounts to is Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft giving money in exchange for that researcher's time. Latest example would be Babak Parviz, EE prof who spends all time at Google (http://news.cs.washington.edu/2013/01/26/babak-parviz-on-google-glass-200-on-february-1-cse-403/ http://news.cs.washington.edu/2013/01/26/babak-parviz-on-goo...)