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Intersil Announces Charter Membership in NC State Engineering Consortium
IRVINE, Calif., October 5, 2000—Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), a leading, systems-oriented provider of semiconductors and solutions for the integrated communications market, today announced that it is forming the Engineering Analog/RF/Mixed-signal Design Consortium with North Carolina State University. Intersil is the charter member of this consortium, which has plans to grow into a multimember organization comprised of several local technology companies that will work with NC State’s College of Engineering to develop students for professional careers in analog, radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal design.
IRVINE, Calif., October 5, 2000Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), a leading, systems-oriented provider of semiconductors and solutions for the integrated communications market, today announced that it is forming the Engineering Analog/RF/Mixed-signal Design Consortium with North Carolina State University. Intersil is the charter member of this consortium, which has plans to grow into a multimember organization comprised of several local technology companies that will work with NC States College of Engineering to develop students for professional careers in analog, radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal design.
"During the digital revolution of the past decade, universities have been driving students towards digital circuit design, even though all digital electronic designs require an analog, or real world, interface," said Jeff Mansmann, Intersils Vice President of Engineering for Communication IC Products. "Analog products provide users the benefit of sights, sounds and control that makes digital equipment useful. Unfortunately, the emphasis on digital design has helped to create a shortage of analog engineers. The goal of this consortium is to rejuvenate the analog engineering field at the university level so that we can replenish a depleted analog engineering workforce."
Member companies in the consortium will sponsor adjunct professors to train NC State students in analog, RF and mixed-signal engineering. The consortium also will fund two tenure-track analog engineering professors. A lecture series focused on careers in the analog/RF/mixed-signal field will be developed, as will scholarships for students studying this engineering specialty.
"Jeff Mansmann came to us with this very exciting and unique idea for a corporate-university partnership in order to fulfill a growing engineering employment need," said Dr. Robert Kolbas, professor and head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "We quickly realized that both the students and the companies would benefit from this partnership, so we were pleased to work with Intersil to bring Jeffs idea to fruition."
While Intersil is the charter member of the consortium, NC State is also working to secure sponsorship from several other major corporations in Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina that are in need of analog, RF and mixed-signal engineers. Participating companies will review the consortiums progress twice per year to provide feedback and recommendations, so that the organization can continue to evolve and provide effective guidance to students and faculty.
Mansmann notes, "Intersil is part of the Research Triangle Park community, and this consortium helps address a current professional shortage in this community. It serves the needs of the university and the regions numerous technology companies. Essentially, major forces in teaching and technology are partnering to benefit tomorrows technical workforce."
About North Carolina State University
A Research 1, land-grant university, NC State has traditional strengths in engineering, agriculture, forestry and textiles, and is a leader in emerging fields such as mechatronics, bioinformatics, advanced biomedical engineering, optical networking and e-commerce technology."
About Intersil Corporation
Irvine, California-based Intersil Corporation uses semiconductor expertise to enable highly integrated voice, data and video communications. Intersil's integrated communications portfolio includes PRISM® Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) chip sets that enable mobile connectivity products for the home and office; analog, mixed-signal and digital integrated circuits for broadband access to wireless and wired Wide Area Networks (WANs); and power management products that enable 24x7 reliability in network servers, next generation PCs and information appliances. For more information about Intersil, visit the company's Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.
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PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Corporation
