Micron CEO: Engineers key to tech future- Micron CEO: Engineers key to tech future – Steve Appleton stresses need for research dollars

Promoting engineering as a career and striving for more research and development dollars must be top priorities in America if the high technology industry is to keep growing.

Ken Dey
The Idaho Statesman

That´s the message Micron Technology Chairman and CEO Steve Appleton relayed to more than 300 high technology researchers on Monday.

Appleton was the keynote speaker kicking off the 15th annual Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers´ Electron Devices Society symposium at Boise State University.

Appleton´s talk focused on the benefits of collaboration to bring needed resources to the industry.

“It´s easy to believe that there´s no way to have an impact,” Appleton said. “But I kind of equate it to voting. You sit around and think my one vote can´t possibly count, but at the end of the day that one vote can make a difference in what happens.”

Appleton pointed to his company´s success in promoting an engineering school at BSU.

In 1994 Appleton approached the Idaho State Board of Education with a proposal to donate $6 million for a new engineering school.

With Micron´s backing, BSU´s engineering school became a reality in 1997 and today has total funding of about $25 million, Appleton said.

Those types of private/public partnerships are what´s needed at a time when the number of students graduating with electrical engineering degrees is declining along with a decline in federal funding for research projects.

Appleton said in the 1970s funding for research was split nearly 50/50 between federal and private dollars, but today that ratio is about 75 percent private dollars and 25 percent federal funding.

Although there´s been an increase of 13 percent in engineering jobs, Appleton said the number of students graduating with electrical engineering degrees is down by 15 percent.

By seeking out more research dollars, Appleton said it will increase the interest of students to pursue electrical engineering degrees — a trend he says is already starting to happen.

Enrollments bottomed out in 1998 and 1999 and are now on the rise, he said. At the same time Appleton said there has been an uptick in new federal funding for research.

To keep the upward trend, Appleton said industry leaders need to impress on people how important the high tech industry is to the economy.

“The high tech industry´s share of the world´s production output continues to increase,” Appleton said. “So many economies are dependent on how well the high tech sector is performing.”

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig also addressed the conference and urged those in the technology community to keep government leaders informed about what´s happening in their industry.

Craig professed he doesn´t fully understand the inner-workings of the many high technology advancements, but he does understand the impact the industry has on communities.

“The quality of life you bring and the quality of jobs the industries you associate with bring to communities like Boise and the state of Idaho is what I think about.”

Craig has been a supporter of Micron since its inception and most recently has been active in the helping the company in its battle to secure a tariff against its South Korean competitor Hynix.

This is the first time the IEEE symposium has been held in Boise. Conference organizers said Boise was chosen because of BSU´s growing engineering department and the community´s growing reputation as a technology center.

The conference is not open to the public. It runs through Thursday.

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Ken Dey
[email protected] or 377-6428

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