Chipmaker Intel sets up R&D labs near colleges Berkeley one of 3 U.S. sites

In a bid to tap into the University of California at Berkeley’s brain trust, Intel Corp. is opening a lab just blocks from the campus, hiring a Cal computer science professor to run it and hoping to enlist other professors and graduate students in its research efforts.

The lab is one of three research facilities Santa Clara’s Intel is setting up near universities. Besides UC Berkeley, the others are adjacent to the University of Washington in Seattle and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Intel hopes to add at least three more labs to the mix, including at least one overseas.

The chip giant is by no means the first high-tech company to set up shop near a college, but it is one of the first to hire professors to run the show and open it up to faculty and students, said David Tennenhouse, an Intel vice president and head of research.

“Lots of people have set up research labs next to universities, . . . and most of those labs don’t really collaborate with the university, and sometimes they are competing with university researchers on similar projects,” he said. “We want these labs to actually do joint projects.”

Intel and the universities will work out issues of intellectual property and ownership of potential patents before each project gets off the ground, said David Culler, the Berkeley computer science professor who will run the new lab for Intel. Culler has taken a leave of absence from the university and gone on the company’s payroll.

Ignacio Chapela, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science policy and management who has been outspoken in the past about corporate-funded research projects, said he likes the fact that Intel is keeping a “healthy arms-length distance” from the university.

In the past, he said, other companies have tried to exert control on university projects by funding research efforts or pouring money into departments.

“I do like the fact that (Intel is) out of the campus,” Chapela said. “There’s clear distinction and space between Intel and the university.”

The lab sits on the penthouse floor of a 13-story building in the heart of downtown Berkeley. It will have a staff of about 20 full-time Intel employees plus 20 to 25 graduate students, Culler said.

Culler, who has been teaching computer science at the university for 15 years, took a one-year leave of absence to join Intel and run the lab.

“The whole idea is to tackle research together . . . and harness the (resources of the) two organizations together,” he said. Tennenhouse said while the research at these labs will remain open, Intel plans to “mirror” the same kind of work in its own in-house research labs.

“You don’t get ahead by hiding things,” he said, noting that the key to making research profitable is turning it into commercial products. “These labs mean we’ll be getting out of the gate faster, and we’re going to need to keep running faster.”

Investing in research facilities such as this one is important even during one of the worst downturns in high-tech history, Tennenhouse said, adding that Intel is on track to spend about $3.9 billion on R&D this year — just a shade below its original plan. He wouldn’t say what the research budget will be next year.

Craig Barrett, Intel’s chief executive officer, encouraged other executives at a semiconductor-industry dinner to support university research.

“The future of our industry depends on technology and innovation and R&D,” he said. “That’s our absolute key to our future.” But more than potential for new products, Tennenhouse hopes the labs will also be a magnet for top technical talent.

“No. 1 value is people — that’s a much bigger benefit than you might think, ” he said. “I’m talking about a relatively small group of people who’ll become the technical franchise for the company.”