Spectrum - Volume 20 Issue 25 March 26, 1998 - Engineering receives gift

A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor , a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

Engineering receives gift
from Motorola Semiconductor

By Liz Crumbly

Spectrum Volume 20 Issue 25 - March 26, 1998

Motorola Semiconductor of Austin, Texas, has announced a gift of $500,000 to the Virginia Tech College of Engineering.
The gift of $100,000 per year for the next five years "will optimize Motorola's and the college's areas of interest concerning semi-conductor technology," said Jim George, vice-president and general manager of Motorola's Imaging and Storage Division in Austin and senior liaison between the company and the college.
The funding also is an extension of the partnership Motorola formed with the College of Engineering in 1996, George said. Virginia Tech was one of five schools selected nation-wide for increased recruitment of students for jobs and internships, as well as strategic equipment donations and support of research.
George said the $500,000 also is intended in part to support the college's Minority Engineering Programs and diversity programs, such as Women in Engineering. Some of the money also will be used to help support cooperative-education students and interns from the college who will work for Motorola.
Leonard Ferrari, head of Tech's electrical and computer-engineering department, said several other uses of Motorola's support are being considered. These include creating fellowships with matched funding from the college, supporting undergraduate student projects, establishing a digital-signal-processing laboratory, and supporting research in semi-conductors and materials processing.
Motorola's decision to build a $3-billion semi-conductor plant in Goochland County near Richmond "is an important reason for the partnership with Virginia Tech," George said.
"When Motorola has three major semi-conductor anchor sites--in Austin, Phoenix, and Richmond--we will have a great need for engineers with varied skills," George said. "Virginia Tech will be an important supplier of skilled graduates to both our Richmond and Austin plants."