Uncle Phil has entered the engineering chat

It’s no secret that Oregon State University has long been the premier engineering school for our state. And recent investments from OSU alum and NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang have done a great deal to continue to solidify that position. But now, the University of Oregon has a billion new reasons to get into the engineering game. All thanks to a donation from Nike founder and U of O alum Phil Knight and his wife.

“To make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination. It also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided. This is no time to abandon them,” the Nike founder said in a statement. “Penny and I are grateful for the chance to invest in our most promising young people’s future in this important way.” 

The university said it will use the money to start the Knight College of Engineering. It’s a new program that will share space with the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, created by a pair of $500 million donations from the Knights in 2016 and 2021.

Those facilities consist of two leading-edge research buildings just across busy Franklin Boulevard from the main University of Oregon campus. The first opened in 2020, with a second opening this year. The university said Wednesday it plans to build a third building somewhere near the existing facilities, aiming to begin construction within the next two years. But it hasn’t picked a specific site yet.

The newswire is popping with stories about this, so I’ll likely do a bit of a roundup once things calm down. I just wanted to get the news out to you as soon as I could. (And before my next meeting.)