Texas Instruments Sets New Giving Standard With $7 Million Cash Donation To Rice University

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Rice University
Michael Cinelli
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Texas Instruments
Gail Chandler
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Donna Coletti
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TEXAS INSTRUMENTS SETS NEW GIVING STANDARD
WITH $7 MILLION CASH DONATION TO RICE UNIVERSITY

Breaking with current trends in corporate
giving, Texas Instruments officials announced a $7 million cash
donation to Rice University today to fund long-term cooperative
research projects in key technological areas of digital signal
processing and information engineering.

This donation represents an investment toward sustaining TI’s
leadership role in digital signal processing solutions-one of
today’s most important advanced semiconductor technologies.

“The Texas Instruments gift is immensely significant to Rice in
part because of its size, also because it represents enlightened and
quite far-sighted philanthropy,” said Rice President Malcolm Gillis.”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.”

The lump sum payment from TI to Rice comes at a time when gifts
from corporations are shrinking, and as corporate boards demand
greater accountability for philanthropic commitments. Traditionally,
corporations pay out cash donations over several years, or
substitute in-kind gifts in lieu of financial contributions.

The TI gift to Rice is the largest corporate cash donation the
university has ever received, and possibly the largest one-time cash
payment by any corporation anywhere to a private research
university.

“Many educational institutions approach TI,” said Tom Engibous,
TI executive vice president and president of the company’s
semiconductor group. “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.”

The majority of the funds from the TI gift will go toward two
purposes: the endowment of a permanent visiting professorship at
Rice and to support more than a decade of graduate fellowships and
research projects in these areas. A smaller portion of the gift
endows a TI-named wing of the university’s new computational
engineering building, which will be devoted to digital signal
processing research.

“Rice and TI each aim for nothing less than world leadership in
digital signal processing,” Gillis said. “Both Rice and TI benefit
greatly from the fact that our research interests coincide with
fields essential to one of TI’s core interests.”

For 80 years, Rice graduates in science and engineering have
distinguished themselves in the public and private sectors.
Approximately 140 of these graduates are currently part of TI’s
worldwide work force, with many leading the way in furthering TI’s
record of innovation and excellence. For example, at TI’s Stafford
location -just south of Houston-are 35 employees who hold Rice
degrees.

“TI-employed Rice graduates and TI staffers have worked closely
with Rice University in strengthening a curriculum which educates
students on the advanced technologies needed in today’s work force,”
Engibous said. “During the last two decades, members of TI’s
Technical Staff have served as adjunct and visiting professors at
Rice’s Engineering School, developing and teaching courses on these
technologies.”

Michael Carroll, dean of the George R. Brown School of
Engineering at Rice, said, “Rice researchers have worked closely
with colleagues at TI to develop new techniques and processes in
areas including digital signaling processing, compilation, and
semiconductors. “These collaborative efforts have created
significant opportunities for Rice researchers and have resulted in
improved technologies and applications that have benefited Texas
Instruments,” he added.

The new endowed faculty position and the graduate student
support made possible by the TI gift will enhance Rice’s research in
telecommunications and other related signal processing applications,
including applied mathematics, with an emphasis on digital wireless
communication.

“There is an insatiable demand around the world for a work force
skilled in the development of advanced semiconductor technology,
such as digital signal processing solutions,” said TI’s Engibous.”TI is committed to developing this work force and is using
innovative methods to support the higher education of tomorrow’s
engineers in the technologies that applications, such as wireless
communications, will require.”

Sidney Burrus, the Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering
at Rice, said, “Across all research areas in this field, Rice and
Texas Instruments have forged working relationships which have
vastly expanded the knowledge of digital signal processing around
the world.”

Note to editors: Rice University is a coeducational,
nonsectarian private university dedicated to undergraduate teaching
and to graduate studies, research and professional training in
selected disciplines. Its defining characteristics are its small
size, distinguished faculty, gifted students, acclaimed research and
scholarship, and financial stability.
More information about Rice can be found on the World Wide Web
at http://www.rice.edu/

An industry pioneer and the world leader in digital signal
processing solutions for more than 13 years, Texas Instruments
Semiconductor Group provides innovative solutions to more than
20,000 customers worldwide in the computer, communications,
consumer, automotive, military and industrial markets. TI offers a
unique breadth of digital and mixed-signal products and
technologies, hardware and software development tools, design
information services and global support.

Texas Instruments Incorporated, headquartered in Dallas, Texas,
is a high-technology company with sales or manufacturing operations
in more than 30 countries. TI products and services include
semiconductors; defense electronics systems; software productivity
tools; printers, mobile computing products and consumer electronics
products; custom engineering and manufacturing services; electrical
controls; and metallurgical materials.

More information about TI is located on the World Wide Web at
http://www.ti.com

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