DALLAS, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas
Instruments (TI) Foundation announced today a multi-million-dollar
gift to the Museum of Nature & Science, resulting in the naming
of a new Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation Hall, which
will be part of the new Perot Museum of Nature & Science.
The Hall naming recognizes a $4.4-million early leadership gift as well as the
decades-long volunteer and financial support provided by the TI
Foundation, Texas Instruments and its employees.
To celebrate the announcement, the Museum, TI Foundation and
community leaders unveiled plans and provided a preview of exhibit
prototypes in an office building adjacent to the Perot Museum site.
Construction workers also hung a large red-and-white banner from
the second floor of the museum's east side to mark the hall
location.
"We're especially excited about the fun and educational
experiences that the Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation
Hall will bring to students," said Sam
Self, chairman of the Texas Instruments Foundation.
"We envision that this museum will become a tremendous resource for
those who teach science, technology, engineering and math in
North Texas schools.
Businesses in our city, state and nation need a well-educated
technical workforce more than ever. The future depends on
it."
The 5500-square-foot gallery, designed by the acclaimed Science
Museum of Minnesota (SMM), will
feature experiences and interactive exhibits exploring the art and
science of problem solving using engineering and technology.
The Hall will also highlight the many exciting careers in
engineering and showcase local companies and universities that
innovate and inspire.
Throughout the event speakers incorporated "light-bulb moments"
to illustrate the power of innovation and to drive the message that
learning about science is both fun and relevant. Students
from Uplift Education's Peak Preparatory engaged guests with five
exhibit prototypes that represent the various interactive centers
in the new TI Hall. Also showing off impressive skills of
innovation was The Robot Fighting Cancer Cell team, a group
of 10-year-olds winners of the Museum's FIRST® LEGO® League
(FLL®) competition, and their sophisticated robotics creation.
Museum staff also educated and entertained the students and
other attendees with electrifying demonstrations.
"Texas Instruments has been a longtime partner of the Museum of
Nature & Science, donating thousands of volunteer hours and
millions of dollars over past decades," said Forrest Hoglund, chair of Perot Museum of Nature
& Science expansion campaign. "I think it's only appropriate
that our new Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation Hall be
named in honor of this legendary Texas company whose discovery of the
integrated circuit, among other things, has changed modern life as
we know it today."
In Self's remarks, he cited the needs of educators who teach the
STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math).
"Our STEM educators need resources to teach, and students
need resources to learn, especially when school budgets are
stretched as thin as they are today," he said.
He also cited a recent report by Change The Equation, a national
coalition of 110 chief executive officers including TI's
Rich Templeton, that compiled
statistics on STEM learning in America. The report said that
the U.S. ranks behind 16 other developed nations in science and
behind 24 other developed nations in math.
Self noted that "to change these disappointing rankings, one
recommendation is to make science education more interesting, more
appealing, more engaging."
"That's what the TI Engineering & Innovation Hall will be --
an engaging experience -- one that we hope will light the way for
students to learn," he said. "Our goal is to introduce more
children to engineering and to inspire innovation. We want
them to become engineers, scientists, inventors...or any one of a
thousand other careers that need science in today's tech-savvy
world. We want to create "light bulb moments" -- a solid
understanding of how things work. And possibly generate a new idea
that the next generation's Jack
Kilby will develop to change the world."
"Today was a celebration of innovation and giving," said
Nicole G. Small, CEO of the Museum
of Nature & Science. "We thank the Texas Instruments
Foundation, the Texas Instruments Corporation and its employees for
their extraordinary support, now and in past years, to inspire and
educate diverse audiences about math, science, technology and
engineering, and to encourage young people to pursue careers in
these areas."
To learn more about the Museum of Nature & Science and the
expansion campaign, please go to natureandscience.org. To donate to
the Expansion Campaign, please call Mary
Crain at 972-201-0555 or email her at
expansion@natureandscience.org.
About the Perot Museum of Nature & Science
The $185-million Perot Museum of
Nature & Science, designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom
Mayne and his firm Morphosis, is currently under construction on a
4.7-acre site located at 1155 Broom St. at the northwest corner of
Woodall Rodgers and Field Street in
Victory Park adjacent to downtown Dallas. The structure will be 170 feet
tall, equivalent to approximately 14 stories high, and is expected
to open in spring 2013.
The facility's interior will include five floors of public space
featuring 10 permanent exhibition halls, including a children's
museum and outdoor playspace/courtyard; an expansive glass-enclosed
lobby and adjacent outdoor terrace with a downtown view;
state-of-the art exhibition hall designed to host world-class
traveling exhibitions; an education wing equipped with six learning
labs; a large-format, multi-media digital cinema with seating for
300; flexible-space auditorium; public cafe; retail store; visible
exhibit workshops; and offices. Lastly, the building itself
will be used as a "living" example of engineering, sustainability
and technology at work.
About the Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation
Hall
The Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation Hall will have
six focus areas:
- The structures area will introduce mathematical and physical
concepts of strength, stability and economy while challenging
visitors to design structures that serve specific purposes. The
structures area will also cover primary content in materials
science and civil engineering including bridges, beams, and
trusses.
- The mechanisms area will introduce strategies for making things
move, while challenging visitors to use math and physics principles
to design moving systems. The mechanisms - area will also
demonstrate the basic mechanical elements used in mechanical
engineering and technology, such as gears, pulleys, cams, and
levers as well as the application of power and energy to them.
- The controls area will demonstrate how mechanical devices,
electricity and computers can control movement, light, and sound
while challenging visitors to use mathematics and physical
principles to do the same. Visitors will learn how to control
sound, light, and motion.
- From toys and assembly lines to Mars rovers, the robotics
engineers area combine structures, mechanisms and controls to build
self-actuating, programmed machines. In this component, visitors
design, build and program a robot to race with others through a
maze, follow a line, pick up and move objects.
- In the engineering activity station, trained museum volunteers
will help visitors conduct hands-on experiments with
advanced engineering technologies such as laser-based optical
communication and super-conducting magnetic levitation. Visitors
will gather around an enclosed demonstration bench and watch
activities in action on large video screens.
- The local technology showcase areas will use graphics, objects
and videos to present evocative examples of local innovators in
structural, mechanical, electronic and software product design.
They will feature brief bios of notable Texas engineers and companies showing the wide
range of careers available in engineering. Initial companies
include Texas Instruments, Hanson Robotics, Southern Methodist University Innovation Gym and
the University of Texas at Dallas
Center for Brain Health.
About Texas Instruments Foundation
The Texas Instruments Foundation, founded in 1964, is a
non-profit organization providing philanthropic support for
educational and charitable purposes primarily in the communities
where Texas Instruments operates. While its primary focus is on
providing knowledge, skills and programs to improve science,
technology, engineering and math education, the Texas Instruments
Foundation also invests in health and human services programs that
meet the greatest community needs.
About the Museum of Nature & Science
The Museum of Nature & Science – the result of a unique
merger in 2006 between the Dallas Museum of Natural History, The
Science Place and the Dallas Children's Museum – is an
AAM-accredited non-profit educational organization located in
Dallas's Fair Park. In support of
its mission to inspire minds through nature and science, the museum
delivers exciting, engaging and innovative visitor experiences
through its education, exhibition, and research and collections
programming for children, students, teachers, families and
life-long learners. The facility also includes the TI Founders
IMAX® Theater and a cutting-edge digital planetarium. The Museum of
Nature & Science is supported in part by funds from the City of
Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, the Texas Commission on the Arts and HP. The
Museum of Nature & Science also is building a new $185-million museum on a 4.7-acre site in Victory
Park to complement the Fair Park facilities. To learn more about
the Museum of Nature & Science, please visit
natureandscience.org.
SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated