University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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H IN AUSTIN ' taj(1 fesecutivsof. ectot, joint research vet nologyandinternatioDil tes in microelectronic January 1983.MCC sc- lents and financial pots from 12 major companies, including RCA and Sperry. Clif Drummond, associate director of the UT Center for Energy Studies, said The University was an incredible magnet that attracted MCC to Austin. An agreement by The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A M University to accelerate their development of advanced research programs was also a major attraction for MCC, White said. Fifty-seven U.S. cities were originally considered as sites for MCC, but the field was soon narrowed to four and final- ly, Inman said, Austin was selected after an intensive, ex- haustive analysis. Criteria for Austin ' s selection included its quality of life, with an emphasis on the quality of its three major industries electronics, state government and higher education all clean, non-polluting industries. This is far more than just another industry to Texas, said White. MCC represents a unique effort to bring together this nation ' s brightest minds to keep the United States in the forefront of technological advances. Julie Del Barto High-Tech in Austin 101

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HIGH-TECH With the hopes of becoming a world-class university, The University of Texas at Austin joined with business and , government to welcome the Microelectronics and Com- puter Technology Corp. to Austin. Adm. Bobby R. Inman, president and chief executive of- ficer of MCC, and Gov. Mark White announced MCC ' s decision to establish operations in Austin at a May 18, 1983 news conference. White said MCC ' s decision to locate in Austin would prove to be a turning point in the economic history of our state. White announced that the research operations center would be located on a 20-acre tract of land at the Balcones Research Center. He also said that $20 million worth of of- fices and laboratories would be jointly funded by the UT System and the state ' s business community. MCC was created as a private sector, joint research ven ture to maintain the level of technology and international competitiveness of the United States in microelectronics. Beginning formal operations in January 1983, MCC ac- cumulated the best in scientific talents and financial power 100 High-Tech in Austin

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THE UNIVERSITY The Mark of Excellence Shaped like a goose egg and weighing 1,778 carats, a Texas-sized blue topaz was the centerpiece in the growing Barren Collection of gems and minerals at The University of Texas at Austin. The stone, the official gem of Texas, was purchased by The Univer- sity in 1968 for $3.25 per carat. Discovered in Brazil, the value of the Texas Topaz was estimated at $50,000 by Edward C. Jonas, curator of the collection and a professor of geological sciences at The University. Julie Del Barto Todd Curates Sports Collection Terry Todd really knows how to throw his weight around, 20,000 pounds to be exact. The former award-winning powerlifter returned to U T in the Fall, 1983, bringing with him approximately 20,000 pounds in books and magazines. A lecturer in the Department of Physical and Health Education and the curator of the Todd-Mclean Sports History Collection, Todd ' s materials formed the core of the collection. My breakthrough in collecting, Todd said, came from Ottley Coulter, a retired circus strongman who had been assembling magazines and other publications for 60 years. After the death of Coulter, his family sold the materials to Todd. The Sports History Collection in Gregory Gym would be made available to students, sportsmen and researchers. A desk in the reading room was reserved for Roy J. McLean, professor emeritus of physical and health education. The Roy J. McLean Centennial Fellowship in Sports History, was, in part, to fund the maintenance of the collection. Julie Del Barto Terry Todd sorts out the new sports collection. Runge Directs New Pulsatile Heart Pump Project Experiments on calves may lead to the adoption of a lifesaving technique for humans. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin were en- couraged with the results of tests evaluating the effectiveness of a new external heart pump. Directing the project was Dr. Tom lunge, medical director of non- wasive cardiology at Brackenridge [ospital in Austin and a faculty lember in UT ' s biomedical engineer- ing program. With successful lemonstrations of the pump on a 170- und calf, Dr. Runge believed that ' for us, this has been a point of en- couragement that the Texas Heart In- stitute has picked up on it. The new Pulsatile heart pump was designed to improve on conventional pumps by reducing the damage done to blood as it travels through the ar- tificial device. This was accomplished by pushing the blood with a compres- sion action that drove the blood through the capillaries more efficient- ly. These external valves are unique, Dr. Runge said. A researcher at the Texas Heart Institute described them as ' elegant, ' he added. The major difference between con- ventional pumps and the new pump was the use of external valves in the UT device as opposed to the internal valves of the older devices. According to Dr. Runge, These external valves are passive. They allow the tubing to be disposable and therefore, less ex- pensive, and they diminish clotting and hemolysis, the damage of blood cells. With successful experimentation behind them, researchers believed that the new Pulsatile pump could be used in emergencies. Although further testing is planned, the pump was con- sidered a breakthrough in biomedical research. Julie Del Barto 102 Mini Features