Digilent, Inc. is an electronic engineering design and manufacturing firm located in downtown Pullman, Wash. President Clint Cole was on the faculty at Washington State University in Pullman when he and another professor, Gene Apperson, founded the company in 2000. Cole continues to teach in the Electronic Engineering department at WSU to date.
Cole and Apperson saw a need for a basic programming board to integrate with their class lectures. Students learn best by doing, they said, so Cole and Apperson developed a teaching method that integrated lecture with hands on learning, by utilizing their boards. Soon, they were producing boards and selling them throughout the world, fulfilling their desire to make technology understandable and accessible to all.
Digilent Inc. is a leader in the design, manufacture, and world wide distribution of FPGA and microcontroller technologies. Since its founding in 2000, Digilent has grown to the point where products can be found in more than 1000 universities in more than 70 countries throughout the world. As a multinational company with offices in the US, Taiwan, China and Romania, Digilent is able to provide low-cost, expert quality solutions for a variety of customer needs. Digilent also provides high-end OEM manufacturing services for leading technology companies including Xilinx, Cypress Semiconductor and National Instruments, to name a few.
Being located down the street from WSU and eight miles from the University of Idaho has its privileges. With Cole as a professor, the company benefits from being on the brink of new methodology and research at all times. Access to the professors and students allows the company to get feedback on new products and provides Digilent with a way to develop and evaluate new prototypes. The two universities also provide interns for the company, many of whom go on to become employees.
Today more than ever, powerful tools and technologies exist to accomplish most any task the human mind can conceive. The only limit is in bringing these technologies to the people who will be developing tomorrow's advancements. By making the latest digital technologies understandable and available to all, Digilent will remove existing barriers to technological development. Digilent products and services will make the next generation more tech-savvy, promoting faster and further technological advances.
Digilent Inc., named manufacturer of the year
Information provided by Joe Harris, Director of Business Development and Corporate Council for Digilent, Inc. www.digilentinc.com.