Legal rights to University project?
tsestrich: For those curious, the response from my department head (who I worked with to set up the independent study):"
This is a complicated question.Effectively, the University owns everything (all IP) that we do while we are here, faculty, staff, and students alike.  However, they have very limited capability to
effectively copyright, patent, and market everything that is created.  If you were to go through the process of doing this through the University, they would return a portion of any income that they acquire.  In return, they cover the legal, patent, and marketing costs to get the product to market, or to find some company that would want to market it.  Given the number of things that are created in a university, the process of selecting which items to pursue is long and involved.My suggestion is that you proceed on your own.  If you are hugely successful, then you would deal with the university at that time.
"So it seems like most people here are right on. If I can't easily get any more information, I'll probably just go for it. I was just trying to see where I stand so I don't get myself in a ridiculous situation later where I say "Why didn't I think of this earlier?".