The Educational Alliance for Semiconductor Experiential Learning

The 2022 CHIPS & Science Act set in motion a $52B investment in the U.S. domestic semiconductor industry. These investments target the breadth of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing from legacy chip fabrication facilities (fab) to cutting edge silicon integrated circuit (IC) fabs for advanced memory, AI, and quantum computing. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has estimated that CHIPS projects will add 42,000 fab manufacturing jobs, with additional jobs created in IC equipment, materials, and facilities support companies.

Coupled with the downstream labor impact, the total estimated job growth in the U.S. economy from CHIPS investments alone is likely to reach 280,000, and fully half of the IC manufacturing workforce resides in the technician space, populated primarily by associate degree holders. This project will support a novel education alliance centered on multi-modal immersive experiential learning at a leading-edge semiconductor facility, including faculty technical development, based on direct and sustained engagement with IC fab professionals.

The alliance incorporates a semiconductor workforce readiness initiative led by a core group of community colleges to adaptively integrate student immersive experiential learning (IEL) with community college degree and certificate programs to promote the education of the skilled technical worker and their transition into the U.S. semiconductor workforce.

The Educational Alliance for Semiconductor Experiential Learning (EASEL) will be initially comprised of NY CREATES (an organization of the Research Foundation of the State University of New York and the SUNY Center for Economic Development) and a core team of four community colleges: Columbus State Community College (CSCC), Onondaga Community College (OCC), LaGuardia Community College (LGCC), and Madison Area Technical College (MATC). NY CREATES operates the only non-commercial 300mm silicon wafer IC fabrication facility in North America and is supported by a team of more than 750 professional semiconductor engineers, technicians, and facilities staff across a 1.65 million square-foot complex that includes 152,000 square-feet of cleanrooms.

The complex, an ideal location that has long hosted community college student IEL, maintains a complete IC process flow down to the 5-7 nm device node. It hosts more than 1,000 industry employees. EASEL also includes leading U.S. chip manufacturers, the NSF MNT-EC center, and 9 additional community colleges in key IC manufacturing regions across the U.S.

Over the proposed 4-year project it is anticipated that up to 660 student learners and faculty participants will be supported onsite at NY CREATES Albany Nanotech Complex resulting in as much as 43,000 hours of student immersive experiential learning and 4,000 hours of faculty technical development. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.