TI awards $7 million
In what is possibly the largest one-time cash donation ever given from a corporation to a private research university, Texas Instruments announced its donation of $7 million to Rice on Tuesday. The contribution opens the door for continued technological advances and growth for the Computational and Electrical Engineering Department.
The donation will provide for a permanent visiting professorship in information technology and will support graduate fellowships and research projects in the areas of signal processing, telecommunications and information technology. A smaller share of the funds will go toward building a wing of the Computational Engineering Building now being constructed. This wing, which will be named for TI, will be dedicated to digital signal processing (DSP) research.
President Malcolm Gillis said, "The event that we commemorate today is a defining moment not just in the history of Rice University but also in the future of Rice University."
J. Robert Jump, chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, said, "We are pleased and delighted." He said the fellowships and support of graduate students will foster interactions with industry and more specifically, TI.
One of today's most progressive semiconductor technologies, DSP chips are said to be revolutionizing products such as compact discs, entertainment systems, laptop computers and cellular phones. They are also used in several other applications including speech processing and multimedia on computer networks. TI is the world's leading DSP supplier with over 20,000 customers worldwide.
Rice professors and students have been instrumental in shaping the past and future of DSP technology. Approximately 140 TI employees are Rice alumni. In 1983, Rice faculty members Sidney Burrus, director of the Computer and Information Technology Institute, and Thomas Parks agreed to write books on DSP chips.
Several other Rice faculty have aided research teams from TI in projects involving wireless communication systems, robot control systems, commercial compiler systems, integrated circuits and other semiconductor analysis.
Gillis said, "This donation is an unusually auspicious outcome of a mutually beneficial relationship spanning many years of very fruitful interactions between TI and Rice. It acknowledges the excellence of Rice faculty and their past, present and potential contributions to science and technology."
TI Executive Vice President Tom Engibous said, "Many educational institutions approach TI, but Rice has expertise in technologies such as digital signal processing, which is an area critical to TI's business success. When you look at TI's greater- than-20-year relationship with, and close proximity to, Rice, then it is not surprising that we chose them." TI's Stafford facility is located in downtown Houston.
Mike Lockerd, TI Vice President of Corporate Staff and Manager of External Research and University Relations, said that TI characterizes the donation as "an investment as opposed to a gift."
Lockerd also emphasized the fact that the majority of the money will not go into the building itself but to the professorship that will bring in pre-eminent figures in the information technology field and to the fellowships and research grants "available to Rice faculty to make proposals" so they may continue to "corroborate on advanced technology with TI."
Distinguished guests at the press conference on Tuesday included Jack Kilby, who was responsible for the formulation of the integrated circuit in the late '50s at TI.
Kilby received the National Medal of Science in 1969, is a member of the National Inventors' Hall of Fame and holds over 60 patents, including the one for the hand-held calculator.
James A. Baker III was also present and Gillis cited that he and Charles Duncan were key participants in the process of obtaining the grant. Certificates were presented to Engibous and TI President and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Junkins by Michael Carroll, dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, on behalf of Rice.
As far as patents are concerned, Gillis said that the patent arrangement with TI is the same as with any other company that Rice has arrangements with. TI will receive no special patent privileges.
This item appeared in the News section of the March 22, 1996 issue.
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