Creating the Revolution: Stanford and Silicon Valley

It is a well-documented fact that Silicon Valley sprang from the Stanford School of Engineering. Former Dean Fred Terman's vision of local employment for his graduates led to the founding of Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems. Dean John Hennessy, co-founder of MIPS Computer Systems and Chief Architect at Silicon Graphics, describes the continued success of this academia-industry partnership. The partnership, says Hennessy, fosters an environment of creativity, encourages faculty to work on projects within industry, and views students as inventors and part of the workforce at large. He describes methods to maintain faculty quality and creativity and demonstrates the impact of entrepreneurialism in the classroom.