DANANG, VIETNAM and HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM--(Marketwired - Nov 19, 2014) - On November 10, 2014 the Sunflower Mission presented a total of 54 university scholarships to engineering and technology students in Ho Chi Minh City and Danang. The Sunflower Mission was founded in 2002 to improve the lives of people in Vietnam through educational assistance programs and to also provide life-long leadership skills for Vietnamese students in America. The Engineering & Technology Scholarship Program focuses on students who demonstrate excellence in their academic studies as well as demonstrated qualities of leadership and giving back to the community.

"The scholarships will help these students finish their university studies and, we hope, build a career in the semiconductor industry either in integrated circuit (IC) design or software development. More importantly, these are students who will give back to the community. We chose students who understand that success is not just about money, it's not just about the individual -- it is also about working for a greater cause," said Duy-Loan Le, founding member of the Sunflower Mission, Texas Instruments (TI) senior fellow and eSilicon board member.

"Sunflower Mission's corporate partner, eSilicon Corporation, a leading independent semiconductor design and manufacturing solutions provider and eSilicon Vietnam's parent company, made its Vietnam engineering team available to act as technical advisors and select the top 54 students. The program had a rigorous selection process that included writing an English essay, followed by an interview that focused on technical areas, the students' leadership qualities and their commitment to contribute to their communities," said Bruce Newton, country director, eSilicon Vietnam. Mr. Newton also commented, "eSilicon Vietnam was also very pleased to provide 9 of the winning students with an offer of employment after they graduate to join our 300-strong engineering team in Vietnam."

"This year, we focused on students who have a passion for either IC design or software application development because we believe the ability to design and support new technology is critical to a country's success," said Ms. Le.

eSilicon, a donor since 2005, managed the entire scholarship program and hosted the ceremonies at its Danang and Ho Chi Minh City offices. The ceremony began with remarks from Ms. Le, a world-leading engineer who holds over 20 patents through her work with TI as well as Deepak Sabharwal, VP of engineering, IP solutions, eSilicon Corporation. As part of the ceremony, the winning students participated in a question-and-answer session with Ms. Le and other invited executives. It ended with the scholarship presentation to the students and a photo session with family members and university representatives.

"By giving the students time to talk with executives and other VIPs, I want to show them life's possibilities," said Ms. Le. "Through our interactions, I hope to plant a seed in their hearts that they can change their lives, then grow to help change others' lives by connecting with the engineering community and the greater community of the Vietnamese people."

About Sunflower Mission
Sunflower Mission is a U.S.-based, nonprofit, non-political, non-governmental organization. It seeks to improve the future of Vietnam, one student at a time, by providing classrooms, educational materials and scholarships. Since 2002, it has built and maintained 139 classrooms and provided over 12,000 scholarships to students at all levels, from elementary school through college. Please visit www.sunflowermission.org to learn how you can participate.

About eSilicon
eSilicon, a leading independent semiconductor design and manufacturing solutions provider, delivers custom ICs and custom IP to OEMs, independent device manufacturers (IDMs), fabless semiconductor companies (FSCs) and wafer foundries through a fast, flexible, lower-risk, automated path to volume production. eSilicon serves a wide variety of markets including communications, computer, consumer, industrial products and medical. www.esilicon.com.

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