Schmitt Says UA Will Aid High-Tech Growth

The completion of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in 1998 and Interstate 540 in 1999 should help lure high-tech companies to the area, and the University of Arkansas is trying to recruit new engineering students to provide an employee base.

“We don’t have a high-tech employee base, but we have a high-tech employee base of people who want to move back here,” said Neil Schmitt, who has been serving since July as interim dean of engineering at the University of Arkansas.

Schmitt said the UA’s College of Engineering awards about 400 degrees per year on the bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. levels combined. But 60 to 70 percent of those graduates land jobs outside of Arkansas.

Schmitt said the UA is trying to stem the brain drain while at the same time recruit more students — about 25 percent more in the College of Engineering by 2010. Bringing more high-tech companies to the area would certainly help.

In addition to better transportation, Northwest Arkansas has an abundant supply of water, electricity and gas, “so utilities are not a problem [for companies that want to locate here],” Schmitt said.

“Fifteen years ago, Wal-Mart wouldn’t have located here if it hadn’t started here,” Schmitt said. “They survived in spite of the infrastructure … Wal-Mart is a very high-tech company. They have one of the largest information databases in the world.”

College of Engineering

The UA’s College of Engineering awards bachelor’s degrees in electrical, mechanical, civil, biological, industrial and chemical engineering in addition to computer science. The college also has master’s degree programs in transportation engineering and environmental engineering.

“Our basic approach is that our students are better off getting a degree in one of the fundamental disciplines and then specializing on the master’s level,” Schmitt said.

Engineering isn’t all about big buildings. Sometimes engineering on a microscopic level can have a huge impact on technology. That’s why the UA is emphasizing its programs in nanotechnology and biotechnology. (An example of nanotechnology would be the tiny cameras that doctors send through a patient’s blood stream to look for abnormalities in the arteries.)

Schmitt said the UA is one of just four engineering schools in the nation that has received support from the National Science Foundation for research in DNA computing.

Neil Schmitt

Schmitt grew up in Pekin, Ill. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the UA in 1963. Schmitt went on to receive a master’s degree the next year.

After two years in the Army in Arizona, Schmitt moved to Dallas, where he worked a short while for IBM and later for Texas Instruments. At TI, Schmitt was part of a team that developed airborne radar the Navy used to detect submarine periscopes in the ocean.

While living in Dallas, Schmitt earned a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in 1969. He was then hired to teach electrical engineering at the UA.

Schmitt has been at the UA ever since. He served as dean of engineering from 1983 to 1996. Since then, he has held the title of university professor.

Otto Loewer left as dean last year to be founding director of the UA’s Economic Development Institute. Schmitt agreed to be interim dean for a year while the college searched for a replacement for Loewer.

Schmitt said the UA hopes to have the new dean hired and on the job by July 1.