ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611040031
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Motorola Semiconductors of Austin, Texas, has picked Virginia Tech's College of Engineering for a strategic partnership that should provide Tech students chances at internships while in school and jobs after graduation.
Tech is one of four schools nationwide picked for the Motorola partnerships. The others are Rochester Institute of Technology, Texas A&M and the University of Texas.
Besides helping students, the engineering school could benefit from the partnership through Motorola's donation of important equipment and support of research on the Tech campus, a university spokeswoman said.
Tech was picked for a partnership in part because it's the leading engineering school in Virginia and a leader in the region, said Jim George, a Motorola vice president. George said numerous Tech graduates already work at Motorola's Austin plant and have done good work for the company.
Other factors in Tech's favor, George said, are the engineering school's work on integrated circuits design and microelectronics and its participation in the Virginia Microelectronics Consortium, which includes other Virginia colleges.
George also noted Virginia's growing importance to the microelectronics industry, citing the construction under way on a Motorola-Siemans semiconductor plant in Henrico County and Motorola's plans for another plant in Goochland County.
Motorola is already involved in other partnerships at Tech, including those with the school's Mobile & Portable Radio Research Group and Center for Wireless Communications.
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