海角社区

Jon Stoner, AMI Semiconductor鈥檚 chief technology officer, and Arthur C. Vailas, Ph.D., president of 海角社区, will underscore the value and potential for collaboration between higher education and private industry when they speak at the Third Annual 海角社区/AMI Semiconductor Research Symposium on Friday, Oct. 26.

AMIS and 海角社区, respectively, are the largest private and public employers in Bannock County. Stoner and Vailas will be keynote speakers at the 海角社区 Rendezvous Complex鈥檚 conference suite, where the symposium will run from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. This year鈥檚 theme is 鈥淔orging Innovative Academic/Industrial Partnerships.鈥� The executives will make their presentations at the beginning of the symposium.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an honor that leaders of AMIS and 海角社区 will make presentations at the symposium,鈥� said Robert Holman, Ph.D., event organizer and 海角社区 chemistry department chairman. 鈥淚t shows how important both CTO Stoner and President Vailas think the potential for more collaboration is between these two entities.鈥�

AMIS designs and fabricates customized microchips for the automotive, medical, industrial, defense and aerospace industries. Its world headquarters is in Pocatello.

Following comments by Stoner and Vailas, two scientists from AMIS and two from 海角社区 will make presentations. The event also will feature about 30 research poster sessions by AMIS scientists and engineers and 海角社区 chemistry, physics, Idaho Accelerator Center and engineering faculty and students.

Holman said he originally helped organize the symposium for two major reasons:

鈥� To help establish a venue for students to display their research results.

鈥� To provide a forum of idea interchange between scientists and engineers at 海角社区 and AMIS.

The symposium has helped create greater dialog between AMIS and 海角社区.

鈥淎MIS now knows what we鈥檙e doing at 海角社区 and where we overlap in intellectual pursuit,鈥� Holman said. 鈥淧articularly in engineering, physics and chemistry there have been opportunities for collaboration. There has been a lot more dissemination of information.鈥�

Bruce Greenwood, AMIS engineer and symposium organizer, said the symposium has created a lot more informal collaboration, and some formal agreements.

鈥淚t has been good to see our joint work in organic solar cells become a well-funded research project,鈥� Greenwood said. 鈥淐ontinuing to grow our relationship will give more opportunities for future research projects. The next step will be turning these into economic benefits for the region.鈥�

Collaborative efforts by the two entities have yielded large dividends, as evidenced by a $440,000 Department of Energy Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE EPSCoR) grant extension 海角社区 received this year. The funding is part of a three-year award that will total about $1.3 million. It continues funding from a previous three-year $1 million EPSCoR grant undertaken by 海角社区 and other Idaho research institutions, including Boise State University and the University of Idaho.

The EPSCoR grant鈥檚 principle investigator is Rene Rodriguez.  The Idaho institutions received the grant in part because of results obtained in a study done at 海角社区 that was funded from a $50,000 grant from AMIS. Researchers from 海角社区 used the results of the AMIS-funded grant when applying for EPSCoR grant and were successful receiving funding.

The AMIS/海角社区 efforts of collaboration have been fruitful in less obvious ways as well, Holman said. For instance, Holman said he knows of three new chemistry majors at 海角社区 who decided on pursuing their major after participating in an AMIS/海角社区 Research Symposium.

鈥淎ttending the research symposium really swayed the students into choosing their major because the symposium demonstrated what they could accomplish with a chemistry degree,鈥� Holman said.