TI Foundation and UT Dallas establish “TI Science & Technology Innovation Fund”

Fund aims to raise talent bar by encouraging students to study both technology and business

DALLAS .- The Texas Instruments (TI) Foundation announced today a grant of $332,400 to The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) over a three year period to create a “TI Science & Technology Innovation Fund”. The fund will support innovation and entrepreneurial development camps for high school juniors and seniors to increase interest in careers in science and technology. It will also provide scholarships to UT Dallas engineering and science students who take entrepreneurship courses.

“There is a great story of collaboration unfolding at UT Dallas which I believe will yield tremendous value for this region and has been greatly facilitated by the TI Foundation’s grant,” said Steve Lyle, Texas Instruments director of Human Resources Shared Services and chairman of the industry advisory council for UT Dallas’ School of Management (SOM).

“The collaboration between the schools of Management and Engineering has never been better and more aligned with the vision of UT Dallas as a whole,” Lyle said. “This alignment and collaboration will promote economic growth in the region by turning research into valuable products and services and by delivering a talented labor pool of engineers and technologists who are also managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs.”

To date, the relationship between the university’s School of Management and the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) has yielded a joint degree program where a student can obtain dual master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Management. Also students earning a bachelor of science in Electrical Engineering can earn credits towards an MBA program.

The other significant point of collaboration is the creation of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at UT Dallas. Founded in 2005, IIE serves all seven schools of the university to advance innovation and entrepreneurial activities in the artistic, social, scientific and commercial arenas. The grant will further the work of the Institute by helping to create a pipeline of future talent that can help propel the community to the next level of technological innovation.

Building tomorrow’s workforce through higher education has been a commitment of TI’s for more than 60 years. TI works to develop partnerships and programs, contribute financial resources, offer expertise and donate equipment — all with the specific goal to make higher education — particularly education focused on engineering, math and science — better and more accessible. TI’s efforts reach the top engineering university programs around the world. In the past 10 years, TI and the TI Foundation have made grants totaling more than $75 million to colleges and universities.

The School of Management, the largest of the university’s seven schools, maintains an intense focus on technology and management. It addresses the challenges of today’s technology-driven global society by providing cutting edge programs based on extensive research to meet the needs of tomorrow’s industry for the betterment of society. The school’s Full-Time MBA program ranks 26th among public schools of business and 53rd overall, according to US News & World Report. Financial Times ranks the research productivity of the SOM faculty 20th worldwide, and it ranks the school’s executive MBA first in Texas and tied for 10th in the US.

The ECS seeks to deliver world-class education and research that provides a competitive edge to the community that inspires the pursuit, creation and dissemination of knowledge for the greater good of society. The Jonsson School, named after TI founder, J. Erik Jonsson, is ranked 47th among engineering schools at public universities and 77th overall, according to US News & World Report.