Electronic measurement company Keysight Technologies Inc. recently donated 25 high-quality mixed signal oscilloscopes, a fundamental tool in analyzing the quality of sound, radio and digital information, to the UCCS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“Both Keysight and UCCS can trace their origins to Hewlett-Packard Corporation,” Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak said at a brief March 28 ceremony. “This generous gift is a testament to the long and strong partnership between our campus and businesses in the Colorado Springs community.”
Enrollment in the undergraduate Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering program has increased 139 percent during the past five years, said T.S. Kalkur, professor and chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, creating a need for more work stations to provide UCCS students with hands-on laboratory experience. Oscilloscopes are used throughout engineering and the sciences in applications that include robotics, electronics, communications, signal processing and digital design. The oscilloscopes, valued at $500,000, are located in the electronics and robotics laboratory and the signal processing and communication laboratory.
“One might say that learning to use an oscilloscope is as important for an electrical engineer as a stethoscope is for a doctor or nurse,” Kalkur said. “Nowadays, employers are always looking for engineers with hands-on experience in using test equipment such as oscilloscopes, so these scopes will play an important role in preparing our graduates for industry.”
Keysight is a spinoff from technology giant Hewlett-Packard and later Agilent Technologies Inc., firms with strong historical ties to UCCS. HP co-founder David Packard wanted a permanent university campus in Colorado Springs to support the educational needs of company employees. The combination of the state’s desire to attract HP to Colorado Springs and the $1 sale of the defunct 80-acre Cragmor Sanitarium property led to the birth of the Colorado Springs campus of the University of Colorado in 1965.
“Keysight is committed to supporting our local communities and all levels of education focusing on science, mathematics and engineering,” Dave Cipriani, Keysight Digital and Photonics vice president and general manager, said. “Our donation to UCCS underscores the active role we have taken in supporting higher education and research throughout the world. We are very pleased to be able to continue our long-term partnership with the university and excited by the hands-on experience that our oscilloscopes will provide to a new generation of engineering students.”
Earlier this year Keysight, headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, announced that it will open a 200-person customer support center in Colorado Springs, where the company already employs 450 people at a data center and in a facility that manufactures oscilloscopes and other electronic analysis instruments used in the production of computers, servers, mobile devices and automotive electronics.
— Story by Melanie Sidwell, CU Office of Advancement
— Photos by Tom Kimmell
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