How smart would your phone be without university research?

The Association of American Universities (AAU) today released a new graphic illustrating that today's smartphones would be impossible without the federally funded university research that laid the foundation for many of their key components. As the new graphic shows, such elements as multi-touch screens, GPS, lithium ion batteries, and multi-core processors have their origins in university research supported by federal research agencies such as the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Departments of Energy and Defense.

"With top technology companies issuing new smartphones seemingly by the day, we thought this would be a useful time to remind the public and policymakers that these amazing devices would not exist were it not for the university research on which so many of their essential components are based," said AAU President Hunter Rawlings. "It is estimated that more than 50 percent of U.S. economic growth is based on technological advances, many of which, like the smartphone, have their basis in federally funded science and engineering conducted at AAU and other research universities."

The graphic opens up to show several components and allows the user to click on each component and find out about the university research on which it was based. The final screen shot reveals what your smartphone would look like without university research.

Provided by Association of American Universities