CNS › Corporate Relations

The College of Natural Sciences is fortunate to benefit from many mutually fruitful relationships with companies that consistently support our students, faculty, and programs. Of these many relationships, few stand out as much as those we enjoy with Advanced Micro Devices and National Instruments.

In 2002, for the first time in our thirty-year history, the College's Foundation Advisory Council initiated a corporate awards program to salute these special relationships. Two awards have been created. The Corporate Partners in SolUTions award recognizes companies that provide extraordinary assistance to the College. We realize as well that many exceptional relationships with companies occur because of individuals who serve as our champions within the company. To recognize these personal efforts, we created the Trailblazer award.

Student scholarships and fellowships, faculty chairs, research grants, outreach and education initiatives, student recruiting and internships—these are among the programs made possible by the College’s corporate partners. In making the corporate awards, the Advisory Council considers support of key college initiatives and length of engagement with the College as well as spontaneous, unexpected, and unusual activity that advances the College mission. We are delighted to offer tribute to these invaluable friends.

How Do Kids Learn to Love Science?
Advanced Micro Devices and National Instruments Offer SolUTions

It's the reliability and generosity of AMD and National Instruments we honor with these first awards.
Mary Ann Rankin Dean, College of Natural Sciences.

Do many kids realize that science and fun are one and the same?

Hundreds do, especially the third through eighth graders who participate in Austin Science Fun Day, hosted by the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin each spring. And now the College is honoring the two corporate partners that have helped make the Austin Science Fun Day a certainty for many years.

National Instruments and Advanced Micro Devices are recipients of the first College of Natural Sciences Corporate Partners in SolUTions Award for 2002/2003. AMD has been a major sponsor of Fun Day for eight consecutive years and National Instruments for four consecutive years.

Austin Science Fun Day is one of several of the College's outreach programs designed to intrigue K-12 students with math and science. Open to the public and held in early March, this daylong event caps months of activities that teach children science is accessible, meaningful, important, and fun. It attracts some 5,000 people each year.

From the early fall, schools join with companies and UT scientists to conduct science projects that range from geology, ecology, astronomy, or computer science to botany or elementary physics. The students’ ongoing science investigations peak on Austin Science Fun Day, when the students create and staff interactive science exhibits that display their achievements at the Texas Memorial Museum on the UT campus.

This year, twenty-one school-organization partners participated in Science Fun Day. National Instruments paired up with fifth and sixth graders at Walnut Creek Elementary School to create a RoboLab. The National Instruments-Walnut Creek team staffed a Fun Day booth that taught basic computer programming, robotics, and automation skills. AMD employees served as judges and event day volunteers and assisted with Fun Day publicity.

Each year Austin Science Fun Day improves. Much of the credit for this success is due to steadfast support of AMD and National Instruments, among the best of our outstanding corporate citizens. We thank them for their support and the creative solutions they bring to the College of Natural Sciences.

Advanced Micro Devices: Strengthening Education, Strengthening Community

Since 1979, Advanced Micro Devices has enriched our local community by promoting innovative solutions to shared community and company needs. By proactively engaging community partners, strategically investing corporate resources, and empowering employees to have a positive impact on their communities, AMD seeks to make a difference in Central Texas every day.

Just as we are determined to succeed in our core businesses, we are also determined to help others succeed. We believe we can have a greater impact on our communities by targeting our corporate investments in two global focus areas: Strengthening Education and Strengthening Community.

Our partnership with the UT College of Natural Sciences is just one example of how we strive to strengthen education by making science fun and relevant to young people.

National Instruments: Getting Involved Through Volunteer and Employee Sharing

National Instruments was founded in 1976 by a trio of research scientists who met at the University of Texas. With its early roots in education, NI celebrates opportunities to help enrich local education and the arts through various UT colleges and the Performing Arts Center. For several years, NI has showcased student success with mechanical engineering and computer programming projects— a result of the NI corporate ROBOLAB Volunteer Program —at Austin Science Fun Day. Recently, NI alumni from the College of Natural Sciences collaborated to create an endowment. The National Instruments Endowed Scholarship for Excellence will henceforth be awarded to undergraduate students in Natural Sciences with majors in disciplines related to NI's research interests. To expedite the first award, NI made an advance gift and awarded the first scholarship in September of 2002.

These collaborations are examples of National Instruments Getting Involved through Volunteer and Employee Sharing - NI GIVES. Through NI GIVES, NI and its employees help educate and mentor the next generation of engineers, support the arts and critical health and human service needs in our community, and help us fulfill our corporate mission to improve everyday life.

Jeff Kodosky, a Trailblazer in Advancing the College of Natural Sciences

Entrepreneur, scientist, philanthropist, friend: Mr. Jeff Kodosky is singular in his unwaivering dedication to the College of Natural Sciences. For these reasons, the College's Advisory Council Foundation is delighted to make its first Trailblazer award to Mr. Kodosky, Co-Founder of National Instruments and an NI Business and Technology Fellow. Tonight we salute him for his diligence in fostering better relations between National Instruments and the College. He has cultivated a rich, long-standing relationship between National Instruments and Natural Sciences and has championed several College initiatives inside the corporation.

It is Mr. Kodosky's latest effort we recognize this evening. His vision and leadership established the corporation- and employee-funded National Instruments Endowed Scholarship for Excellence. The endowment will award scholarships to meritorious undergraduate students in the College of Natural Sciences whose major in Computer Sciences, Mathematics, or Physics aligns their talents with National Instruments’ core business focus in computing and measurement equipment.

The endowment campaign, initiated in March 2002, gained the support of twenty-five National Instruments employees, many of whom are Natural Sciences alumni. National Instruments matched each donation with corporate funds. Mr. Kodosky not only organized this successful campaign; he made it possible to award the first National Instruments scholarship this September—in advance of the full endowment funding—by extending a personal gift.

The College of Natural Sciences is a source of excellence in the education of undergraduate students. We prepare them for a life-long career of expanding and improving our world through science and technology. Our success depends on retaining our most gifted students and on attracting new talented students from around the globe. Competing with other first- rate universities for the best and brightest means increasing the level of financial support offered through undergraduate scholarships. Private support, such as the support provided by Mr. Kodosky and National Instruments, is the primary means by which we make this possible.

And so we honor Mr. Jeff Kodosky, this extraordinary friend to the College and a man whose trailblazing efforts ensure that the College will progress towards new horizons of excellence.