The Silicon Valley Association (SVA), with its academic sponsors University of Lausanne, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and Webster University Geneva, has organized study tours to Silicon Valley since 1992. This year's Study Tour took place from May 13- 21. It was our 17th high tech study tour and took us to the Shanghai region of China.

We will be celebrating our 15th year in 2006 and are planning an anniversary tour to Silicon Valley: Still crazy after all those years?

The study tours comprise visits to outstanding companies, research centers and universities in Silicon Valley and other high-technology areas in Europe and the United States, with the aim of exploring new developments in information technology such as Internet applications, multimedia and communication technologies. Participants have the opportunity to learn about state-of-the-art research and development, strategies and commercial ventures through presentations and discussions, product demonstrations and site tours. The tours are directed by Henri Slettenhaar, formerly at CERN and Stanford University.

Past participants have included faculty and students from all the major Swiss universities, scientific and technical staff from companies and international organizations as well as information technology managers and consultants.