How US Universities Hope to Build a New Semiconductor Workforce

There's shortages of young semiconductor engineers around the world, reports IEEE Spectrum — partially explained by this quote from Intel's director of university research collaboration. 'We hear from academics that we're losing EE students to software. But we also need the software. I think it's a totality of 'We need more students in STEM careers.''

So after America's CHIPS and Science Act 'aimed at kick-starting chip manufacturing in the United States,' the article notes that universities must attempt bring the U.S. 'the qualified workforce needed to run these plants and design the chips.'

The United States today manufactures just 12 percent of the world's chips, down from 37 percent in 1990, according to a September 2020 report by the Semiconductor Industry Association. Over those decades, experts say, semiconductor and hardware education has stagnated. But for the CHIPS Act to succeed, each fab will need hundreds of skilled engineers and technicians of all stripes, with training ranging from two-year associate degrees to Ph.D.s. Engineering schools in the United States are now racing to produce that talent... There were around 20,000 job openings in the semiconductor industry at the end of 2022, according to Peter Bermel, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Purdue University. 'Even if there's limited growth in this field, you'd need a minimum of 50,000 more hires in the next five years. We need to ramp up our efforts really quickly....'

More than being a partner, Intel sees itself as a catalyst for upgrading the higher-education system to produce the workforce it needs, says the company's director of university research collaboration, Gabriela Cruz Thompson. One of the few semiconductor companies still producing most of its wafers in the United States, Intel is expanding its fabs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. Of the 7,000 jobs created as a result, about 70 percent will be for people with two-year degrees... Since COVID, however, Intel has struggled to find enough operators and technicians with two-year degrees to keep the foundries running. This makes community colleges a crucial piece of the microelectronics workforce puzzle, Thompson says. In Ohio, the company is giving most of its educational funds to technical and community colleges so they can add semiconductor-specific training to existing advanced manufacturing programs. Intel is also asking universities to provide hands-on clean-room experience to community college students.
Samsung and Silicon Labs in Austin are similarly investing in neighboring community colleges and technical schools via scholarships, summer internships, and mentorship programs.
Beyond the deserts of Arizona, chipmakers are eyeing the America's midwest, the article points out (with its 'abundance of research universities and technical colleges.')

Indiana's Purdue launched a new interdisciplinary Semiconductor Degrees Program (building on its Defense Department-funded SCALE program which teaches how to build semiconductors for space), and they've partnered with a local community college to offer training for jobs at the West Lafayette foundry SkyWater.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers an Advanced Systems Design class 'which leads senior-year undergrads through every step of making an integrated circuit.'
Intel has pledged $50 million to 80 higher-education institutions in Ohio to 'upgrade their curricula, train and hire faculty, and provide equipment,' including the funding of a Center for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication Research and Education to teach semiconductor-related skills to more than just electrical engineering majors.

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