UCLA - University of California - Los Angeles
10/18/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/18/2024 16:40
New Center for Education of Microchip Designers established at UCLA Samueli
Key takeaways
- A new center to train the next generation of microchip designers through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act has been established at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
- The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to address workforce challenges faced by the U.S. semiconductor industry.
- UCLA Samueli is one of seven inaugural awardees of the National Semiconductor Technology Center's Workforce Center of Excellence announced by the Biden-Harris administration.
A federally funded center to train the next generation of microchip designers through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act has been established at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to address workforce challenges faced by the U.S. semiconductor industry.
UCLA Samueli is one of seven inaugural awardees, with funding totaling $11.5 million, of the newly established National Semiconductor Technology Center's Workforce Center of Excellence announced Sept. 25 by the Biden-Harris administration.
"We are honored that UCLA has been selected to be the home for the new Center for Education of Microchip Designers," said Ah-Hyung "Alissa" Park, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean at UCLA Samueli. "We look forward to educating and training a critically needed talent pool of highly skilled integrated circuit designers and engineers."
Led by UCLA Samueli electrical and computer engineering professor Behzad Razavi, the new Center for Education of Microchip Designers, or CEMiD, will receive $2 million over the next two years to provide comprehensive training in analog- and digital-chip design to engineering students and practicing engineers.
Along with co-principal investigators at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Hawaii, University of Notre Dame and Stanford University, the program will equip hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students at universities across the country with the skills to design, fabricate and test their own chips. The center will also help participants foster industry connections to create a self-sustaining workforce development ecosystem in the U.S. microchip industry.
"I am pleased to congratulate UCLA on this well-deserved funding and anticipated establishment of CEMiD to continue our nation's leadership in semiconductor development," said U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, whose congressional district includes UCLA's campus. "UCLA's CEMiD program will bolster our microchip industry by training the next generation of semiconductor researchers and developers, and will support the professors and engineers who train them."