5/8/2008 Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois
Rich Templeton, chairman, president, and CEO of Texas Instruments (TI), recently spoke to students and faculty members at a lecture on campus sponsored by the ECE Department. Focusing on the topic of semiconductor innovation, Templeton discussed the potential to solve critical problems in the areas of energy, health care, power efficiency, and public safety.
Written by Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois
Rich Templeton, chairman, president, and CEO of Texas Instruments (TI), recently spoke to students and faculty members at a lecture on campus sponsored by the ECE Department. Focusing on the topic of semiconductor innovation, Templeton discussed the potential to solve critical problems in the areas of energy, health care, power efficiency, and public safety.
Templeton’s talk came at the end of a day-long visit to the University of Illinois during which he met with faculty and students. He took the opportunity to discuss ongoing University research, even spending time in several labs viewing student projects.
TI has a longstanding relationship with Illinois as part of its commitment to engineering research initiatives at universities across the globe. The company, number 167 on the Fortune 500 list, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of semiconductors. Templeton expressed a desire to see such a partnership grow in the future between Illinois and TI, two institutions with similar goals of developing breakthrough technology and encouraging young innovators to be leaders of the future. TI employs around 130 Illinois alumni.
At the lecture, Templeton also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit (IC) through a TI presentation of a silicon wafer signed by distinguished Illinois alumnus Jack Kilby, who designed the first IC while at TI in 1958.
“The integrated circuit opened the door to new possibilities for technology, and it’s impossible to imagine life without cell phones, digital televisions, and thousands of other devices that grew out of Jack’s invention,” said Templeton. “Today, all of us at TI want to inspire engineering students to build on Jack’s work and discover new ways to improve the way we live.”
Kilby, who died in 2005, received a 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention, which served as a foundation for the modern microelectronics field.
Templeton said the influence of the IC is profound, with roughly 3.5 billion cell phones in existence alone. That translates into approximately “60 percent of the planet using electronic devices,” he added. “Very few innovations (like the integrated circuit) have ever had the type of impact at that level.”
Templeton himself is credited with helping to define and execute TI’s strategy to focus on semiconductors for signal processing. His leadership helped TI emerge in stronger, strategic, technological, and product positions, and as a result the company has gained market share in its core technologies of analog and DSP for each of the last five years.
“If I have one message that I hope to leave especially with the students, but also the faculty and administration, is that it is a great time to be an engineer,” said Templeton, speaking to the lecture audience. “…Think of engineering as a foundation of knowledge, not just an occupation. You will be advantaged with the knowledge that you leave U of I with because you will understand this world better and it will put you in a position to make better choices and be able to do what you want to do over time … We’re proud of the past, but it’s even more exciting to think about the ways some of these great technologies can be applied.”