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19 October 2007
High-Tech Company Supports Higher Education in Pakistan
Mentor Graphics to pay embedded-systems professor's salary for three years
Washington -- Oregon-based Mentor Graphics Corporation has found a way to do market development and charitable giving at the same time.
The company has given a grant to Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore, Pakistan, to create a “Mentor Graphics chair,” which means it will pay the salary of a professor for three years.
In addition to supporting professor Shahid Masud, who will hold the chair, the American technology company will pay for a scholarship for a Ph.D. candidate to conduct research in embedded-systems design and engineering. The student will work closely with Masud.
Embedded systems refers to software embedded in the microprocessor of electronic items, such as cell phones or digital video disc players. Such systems determine how the hardware interfaces with the software and, for example, make a difference in how quickly a cell phone responds to a command.
In addition to funding research, Mentor Graphics has donated its licensed software packages -- some of which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -- to universities in Egypt, Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East and South Asia. The donations help professors bring their courses up-to-date, allowing them to teach students about the most recent technologies. After donating software, the company follows up with training and support for university departments using it. Mentor Graphics also will help LUMS improve its curriculum in the computer sciences.
“Working closely with industry colleagues to ensure that our programs are tuned to the most current business needs is a key aspect of LUMS philosophy,” Zahoor Hassan, vice chancellor of the university, said in a press release.
The company gains plenty for its charitable support of the university, according to Ian Burgess, a manager of higher education at Mentor Graphics: “In these emerging economies, we want grads who can use electronic design software.” He expects high-tech customers in the region will hire LUMS graduates who will know much more about Mentor Graphics’ products.
Burgess said that, aside from these reasons, his company and other U.S. companies support higher education in Pakistan because many Pakistanis graduate and come to work in the United States or Europe. He said that universities in Pakistan do not have the level of investment in education that there is in the United States, and his company hopes to help rectify that.
More information about Mentor Graphics Corporation’s giving program is available on the company’s Web site.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
