The TI Tucson site is a major product design and test center, specializing in designing high-performance analog semiconductor chips, which are used in a variety of products, including digital cameras, automobiles, mobile phones and other consumer products.

When Texas Instruments purchased Tucson-based Burr-Brown Corporation in August 2000, company leaders were banking on the acquisition making TI a stronger competitor in the analog IC business. As it turns out, that acquisition helped form the bedrock of TI's current leadership of the analog semiconductor sector.

In fact, the company's No. 1 position in the analog IC market is often credited to what is touted as one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the semiconductor industry. TI's $7.6 billion purchase of Burr-Brown not only provided an obvious business and product synergy, but it also afforded TI an opportunity to build community partnerships that have had a positive impact on the city of Tucson and its residents.

Community investment
The United Way is the single largest campaign for TI-Tucson each year and has made great strides over the years. When TI Tucson's United Way team was formed in 2006, the site had less than a 6 percent participation level. By 2010, the participation level had reached to over 44 percent.

Last year, TI Tucson donated more than $116,000 to their local United Way chapter by raising funds through a variety of employee-organized and sponsored event. The United Way team of around 15 TI employees raised awareness and donations by organizing evens, such as Days of Caring, Hot Dogs and Hot Rods BBQ event, silent auctions, and bake sales. One favorite event is the Flavors of the World Buffet where TI Tucson employees celebrate their diversity and proudly show off their culture by preparing cuisine from their native country and sharing it with colleagues.

The TI Tucson BBQ Team has organized a number of fundraising events, including the Japan earthquake relief BBQ fundraiser, the Haiti earthquake relief BBQ fundraiser and a variety of United Way events.

"The TI Tucson United Way team believes that we crossed the barrier and changed the company culture, where the United Way is now accepted as a part of our way of doing business," said Alan Johnson a TI project manager who led TI Tucson's annual United Way campaign.

The Day's of Caring effort is TI Tucson's largest event with more than 135 employee participants. Last year, employees supported a local United Way agency that shelters abused and neglected children by participating in a barn-raising event that involved restoring a badly deteriorated barn for more than 100 children to use for recreation.

Employees in Tucson also provide support for the Tucson Community Food Bank through innovative food and donation drives, which has resulted in TI Tucson's donation of more than $3,000 and hundreds of pounds of food in 2010.

During the holiday season, employees raise funds for donations to a local homeless shelter. Through Project Feed (Feed Everyone Every Day), the TI Tucson site donated 45 turkeys in 2010 that enabled the nonprofit organization to feed over 250 homeless people a home-cooked meal on Thanksgiving Day.

Employees in Tucson also formed a team that works with GAP Ministries, a foster care organization, and The Giving Tree, which also sponsors Project Feed as a provider of food and shelter to the homeless. The organizations promote a holiday gift drive that encourages donations of stocking stuffers for children who otherwise would not receive gifts. Through these efforts, and the donations of TI Tucson employees last year, more than 100 children received gifts.

STEM emphasis
TI's history as a long-time supporter of quality science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education is carried through by employees at the Tucson facility. Employees at the site regularly engage in activities to help advance student interest and achievement in STEM studies.

TI Tucson employee, Jeremy Ruiz, volunteers as a tutor at a local elementary school as part of the Junior Achievement program.

Some of the STEM activities include:

• San Miguel High School Corporate Interns: TI Tucson sponsors four high school student interns that each work on site for one day a week throughout the school year. TI engineers and technicians mentor the students and teach them about careers in technology and engineering. TI's donation covers more than 60 percent of the students' school tuition.

• FIRST Lego League Robotic Teams: TI engineers sponsor and coach students from local schools in building and programming robots for the FIRST Lego League Competition. Several TI engineers also serve as judges during the regional competition.

• Key to Employment for the 21st Century Career Workshop: TI Tucson has been a sponsor of the Key to Employment Workshop in Tucson where employees staffed an exhibit table and led a discussion with more than 1000 high school students and 100 teachers on careers in engineering.

• Southern Arizona Regional Science & Engineering Fair (SARSEF): TI Tucson sponsored the SARSEF Judges' Breakfast and supplied 12 engineers to serve as judges for science projects from K-12 students from all over Southern Arizona. More than 2,500 students participated in the largest science fair in the state. TI awarded graphing calculators to the top students.

• University of Arizona (UA): Summer Engineering Robotics Camp (SERC): The College of Engineering at UA holds the Burr Brown/Texas Instruments Summer Engineering Robotics Camp to attract sixth-eighth grade students to consider engineering as a career option. The fundamental idea is to show prospective engineers exactly how an idea becomes reality. Students build robots and compete in design team challenges, testing their models for speed, endurance and other technological abilities.

• University of Arizona (UA) Senior Projects: TI Tucson sponsors and organizes teams of student engineers in the UA Senior Project competition. Teams are mentored by TI engineers and are encouraged to use their imagination and engineering skills to develop engineering projects.

• Hispanic Chamber of Commerce College Scholarships: TI Tucson provides sponsorship to several underprivileged students, which are selected by employees based on education achievements with an engineering bias.