$5M Grant Backs Boise State EE/CE Ph.D. Program

Boise State University received a $5 million grant from the Micron Technology Foundation to support its new Ph.D. program in electrical engineering and computer engineering. The grant will fund new faculty and staff positions in the College of Engineering, stipends for ECE doctoral students, lab renovations, new instrumentation, and other program costs, university officials said. In December, the State Board of Education unanimously approved a Ph.D. program in electrical and computer engineering at Boise State, and the program began admitting its first students this semester. Eight doctoral students have been admitted to the Ph.D. program for the fall 2006 semester, and university officials plan to grow this number to about 50 students during a six-year implementation phase.

With the grant money, the university will have the resources to hire clusters of researchers working in a particular area instead of a single researcher, said Cheryl Schrader, dean of the College of Engineering. "Collaborations that will increase our competitiveness for federal research grants will begin immediately," Schrader said. "We'll be able to build momentum very quickly." For more information, click here.

Duke to Donate Computers to Durham Public Schools

Duke has begun a project to place about 1,000 of its used but stable computers into community schools and nonprofit organizations each year. The computers that Duke will give to the schools will be about three to four years old, which is about how often the various departments at Duke and its hospitals replace theirs.

Durham Public Schools has ranked near the bottom in the state for its technology offerings. About 3,400 computers need to be replaced district-wide, Durham school officials said. Some computers are more than 20 years old. In the past, Duke sold many of the computers that were outmoded, but in good condition. For more information, click here.