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Advancing semiconductor research
Worldwide university programs | Leadership universities | Labs and facilities | Semiconductor Research Corporation | Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics
TI engages with universities worldwide to develop programs that train engineers to design with our products and to research critical technology breakthroughs for our industry.
Worldwide University Programs
TI's university program investments span the globe. With participation in every region, the TI Worldwide University Program brings TI technology to more than 130,000 students in 2,000 labs worldwide each year. Using TI analog, DSP and MCU embedded processing evaluation modules, chips and software, the next generation of engineers is equipped with the skills to tackle tomorrow's problems.
Programs continue to grow in the Americas, Middle East and Europe and are expanding rapidly in Eastern Europe, China and India. Areas of interest extend beyond traditional electrical and computer engineering, expanding in every region to include biomedical, computer science and green energy.
Having a long history of consistent support is important to partnering with universities. For 27 years, TI's university program has consistently supported member universities with access to teaching materials, textbooks, equipment, training, and support, through discounts or in-kind donations of TI technology.
For example, our program in China began in 1996; in 1998, the Chinese Ministry of Education agreed to provide the latest DSP technologies, development and teaching tools to set up DSP labs. Through 2008, TI has invested in 228 labs in 154 universities, touching more than 40,000 graduate and undergraduate students per year.
Another example of explosive growth has been in India, where six major states have made DSP a compulsory part of their higher education engineering curriculums. Across 711 engineering colleges, labs equipped with TI embedded processors and analog technologies now impact about 45,000 engineering graduates each year. India produces approximately 360,000 engineering/science graduates each year.
TI also supports undergraduates directly by providing chips and evaluation modules to help them build their capstone or senior design projects through analog design contests. The students' creative design inventions range from small medical monitoring devices to facial recognition software.
Regional design contests, from a large tournament in China to the Engibous Contest in the U.S., attract thousands of students and teams competing for cash prizes. Through these contests, students receive access to the latest technologies, which encourages their pursuit of technological careers.
Finally, three more students participated in TI's African Analog University Program in 2008, which is designed to enable promising engineering students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana to complete their graduate degrees at Texas A&M University and intern at TI. The program started in 2007 with an inaugural group of three students, who are now set to begin their TI internship in the summer of 2009.
Leadership universities
TI began our Leadership University program in 1999. We have committed more than $12 million to participating universities since the program began. Leadership universities work with TI on long-term research projects and collaborate with TI's top analog and embedded processing technologists. In turn, the universities provide strong regional leadership links in research and education.
Universities participating in this program include:
In conjunction with the company's increasing business engagements with medical device companies, TI is also supporting medical technology research at selected universities worldwide. This multiyear effort provides monies primarily for research and development of key emerging medical technologies in personal medical devices.
Labs and facilities
TI funds labs and facilities to help students and faculty at universities stay at the forefront of semiconductor silicon technology. Investments have ranged from providing TI products for design work, to lab equipment, to funding to build or upgrade engineering facilities.
As a consequence of TI's decision to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Richardson, Texas, the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) received $300 million from the state of Texas, the UT System and other entities. Some of these funds were used to build the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory at the university, which opened in 2007.
In 2008, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit (IC), TI opened Kilby Labs at our headquarters in Dallas, Texas. A center of innovation designed to foster creative ideas for breakthrough semiconductor technology, the new labs will build on IC inventor Jack Kilby's legacy of revolutionizing our lives through chip innovation. This new research facility will bring together university researchers and leading TI engineers to discover life-changing opportunities for semiconductor technology.
Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)
The SRC is a consortium of semiconductor companies that collaboratively funds precompetitive university research in semiconductor technology and design. TI is a core member of this group, which helps ensure a steady stream of university research contributions and graduates with advanced degrees in science and engineering fields related to semiconductor technology. These students work on critical technology barriers that will benefit our industry.
TI participates on technical advisory boards, routinely attends university research reviews, and adds technical relevance to research efforts. Our annual contributions in the past five years averaged $10.3 million, allowing SRC to fund more than $40 million of semiconductor research and support more than 1,000 science and engineering graduate students at universities in a given year. In 2008, TI gave $11.8 million to the program and plans to award another $11.2 million in 2009.
Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics (SWAN)
TI contributed $5 million to help launch the $30 million Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics, a collaboration that includes the UT system, the state of Texas and other industry partners. SWAN's goal is to advance nanoelectronics education, research, commercialization and manufacturing. TI funds are targeted toward faculty endowments at two UT institutions: the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at Arlington.
As part of this program, in 2008 Robert Magnusson, Ph.D. was named the TI Distinguished University Chair in Nanoelectronics at the University of Texas at Arlington. Magnusson, a professor and the founder and chief technology officer for Resonant Sensors, Inc., has developed a new class of nanostructured photonic devices that have applications in laser, sensor, solar cell and display technologies, which could make diagnostic tests happen in real time instead of waiting hours, days or weeks for results.
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