Donor focus: Jim Sipos
As a UNM School of Engineering student, Jim Sipos participated in the engineering co-op program, in which he completed coursework while working as an intern for both the Navy and NASA. He says entering that program was probably the most valuable decision he made as a student and credits the experience for helping him survive engineering school. Jim received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in December 1979.
After graduation, he accepted a position at the Motorola Government Electronics Division in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he would go on to work in the communications research lab and on multiple product development programs as a hardware design engineer, project leader and systems engineer. He participated in the development of telephones, satellite radios and network routers to support secure voice and data communications for government and military use.
In 2001, Motorola sold the Government Electronics Group to General Dynamics, where Jim continued to work on network security products, wearable computing-communication systems for the U.S. Army, and a new family of software definable portable radios for all branches of the military. He retired in April 2016, after 36 years of service, as a technical staff systems engineer.
Jim does volunteer work at the UNM School of Engineering and serves on the Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board. He is currently supporting The WHY Lab, a new lab experience for electrical and computer engineering students to attain a hands-on experience early in their education.
Why did you choose to give back to UNM?
Soon after graduating, and starting my career at Motorola, I started getting newsletters from the UNM Foundation and School of Engineering. It was good to hear the latest news of the college. When the requests for donations came, I just felt the honorable thing to do was to give back. The UNM School of Engineering gave me this amazing career, and I want to be a small part of helping support its future.
What do you hope your gift will accomplish?
Although I do provide support for specific programs at the School of Engineering, I designate most of my gift to go to the “general funds” that are managed by the dean of the School of Engineering and the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. I trust they will use the funds appropriately for current high-priority needs.
Why should others consider giving back to UNM?
Because alumni should help the School of Engineering grow and become better. We can provide funds to help finance faculty research, build better facilities, provide scholarships, and, most of all, produce the talented engineers that the world needs.
