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By Edina A.T. Strum
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 27, 1996
In an opening ceremony yesterday, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University unveiled the Center for Low Power Electronics.During the two-hour ceremony at McClelland Hall, researchers and sponsors emphasized the role students will play in the center's research and the importance of low-power technology.
"The heart of what we're interested in is the students," said Bill Spaw, an Intel Corp. representative. Intel is one of seven corporate sponsors working with the center.
Each corporation will help with research development - ensuring that the latest issues in the low-power industry are explored by the students. In addition, internships related to the research will be developed.
The center's funding comes from a $1.1 million National Science Foundation grant and from corporate sponsors.
"We want to have a university research project to extend into industry," said Win Aung, an NSF representative.
The center is an essential element in furthering engineering education by allowing students to work with industry-relevant issues and will upgrade the engineering curriculum as research results lead to new courses, Aung said.
According to Mark Skillings of Analog Devices Inc., low-power technology is important because it is the backbone of the portable devices that are becoming an integral part of daily life.
Cellular phones, pagers and laptop computers are run on low-power systems. As the demand for smaller, portable electronics grows, so will the Center for Low Power Electronics.
The sustainability of the technology was a key factor in winning state financial support for the center, said Jack Haenichen from the Arizona Department of Commerce high-technology division.
"There's just no end to the applications of this stuff," he said.
Cooperation between the UA and ASU colleges of engineering first began in 1989-90 with shared academic courses - the center is the latest extension of that cooperation.
"We are on the road to a new way of doing business in Arizona," said Peter Crouch, dean of ASU's college of engineering.
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