TI sets new giving standard with $7M cash donation to Rice University

TI invested in its sustained leadership in digital signal processing solutions March 19 by donating $7 million to Rice University to fund long-term cooperative research projects.

"The Texas Instruments gift is immensely significant to Rice in part because of its size but 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 interaction 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 Rice."

"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."

"TI has also worked closely with Rice 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."

"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."

April 1996, vol. 13, no. 3

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