Universities Augment Curricula To Boost Engineering Graduates Employability

Increasing numbers of universities are offering semiconductor courses in their engineering programs, and also in math, physics, and business degrees.

Most universities now offer a broad foundation so students can pivot to other industries during cyclical downturns, or when technology and science create entirely new and potentially lucrative opportunities, such as generative AI, advanced packaging, and at some point in the future, the rollout of quantum computing. Schools see this as a big opportunity, as well, and some are going all-in to prepare students for a career in microelectronics.

[Key terms: Bachelor of science (BS), Master of Science (MS), electrical engineering (EE), computer engineering (CE), doctorate (PhD), Master of Business Administration (MBA). Note, this is the third and final articles in a series. The first focused on design and AI companies and the second focused on manufacturing and test.]

Dialing into government needs
The U.S. government is asking universities to step up production of talent for planned CHIPS Act facilities. Purdue University president Mung Chiang, formerly the dean of engineering, spent a year in Washington, D.C., as the chief technology advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State. When Chiang returned to Purdue, he had new appreciation of the national and global need for a semiconductor workforce, and universities’ central role.

Purdue’s Semiconductor Degrees Program was launched in response, said Vijay Raghunathan, co-director of the program. They got endorsements from company CEOs and put together an advisory board with executives from across the supply chain, including Teradyne, Amkor, Cadence, and Synopsys.

“The board has been instrumental over the past few years in terms of providing us strategic inputs and giving us that extremely tight connect with industry, so the programs we put together mirror not only industry’s immediate needs, but give us an unprecedented insight into their roadmap of, ‘What will industry need 10 years from now?’” said Raghunathan. “While I do agree universities should ground their students in the fundamentals, in a field such as semiconductors and chips, which is so applied, I don’t even know how it would be possible to decouple yourself from industry needs.”

Fig. 1: Semiconductor research work in the Scifres Nanofabrication Laboratory cleanroom of the Birck Nanotechnology Center. Source: Purdue University

The goal is to give students exposure to semiconductors as early as possible. “If we wait until the third or fourth year to try to attract these students into careers in semiconductors, that’s too late,” said Raghunathan. “The software and AI companies are not waiting. They go after these students in their freshman year, and once the students veer off in that direction, we’ve lost them.”

This is also a challenge for internships in that first- or second-year students may not have enough skills to be useful to a semiconductor company, so they take internships at software or hyperscaler companies. To fix this, Purdue launched its eight-week Summer Training, Awareness, and Readiness for Semiconductors (STARS) internship program. The university pays each student $10,000 for the summer. After a successful first run with about 30 students, industry executives stepped up and supported the program financially for 70 students. For its second run, the university received 800 applications, including some from outside Purdue.

“We had to shut it off, and we ran a program with 100 students this time, with three different tracks — chip design, chip manufacturing, advanced packaging,” said Raghunathan. “We send their chips to a foundry and their chips will come back in a few months, and they will hold a piece of silicon in their hands that they have designed. What a magical experience to draw students into the ecosystem. What a great way for them, as they go talk to recruiters for their internships in the second and third years, to show them, ‘Here’s something that I’ve designed, and here’s proof that I can add value to your company the next summer, starting from day one.’”

First-year students also are encouraged to enroll in a one-credit course called Changing the World with Chips, featuring guest speakers from across industry.

At the other end of a student’s journey, a new MS degree in semiconductors and microelectronics, available on campus or online, has been well received by industry. “They have workforce needs and also employees looking to up-skill,” said Raghunathan. “So the online masters ended up being a big hit with these companies because they sponsor their employees to enroll while they continue to work.”

Government and industry are taking note of Purdue’s efforts. In 2024, Semiconductor Research Corp. was awarded CHIPS Act funding for the Manufacturing USA Institute consortium with Purdue as lead academic institution in one location. The university will lead a Department of Defense Microelectronics Commons project aimed at advancing AI hardware, and SK hynix will establish its HBM and advanced packaging facility in the Purdue Research Park with company and CHIPS Act funds.

Specializing in microelectronics
Purdue made a deliberate decision not to offer a BS in microelectronics so undergrads maintain a broader education, but Rochester Institute of Technology went all in with a program that is now 40 years old. Its five-year BS includes a year of co-ops at one or more companies. Students also gain early access to the university clean rooms.

“Our microelectronics program does have the electrical engineering foundation, but it also has courses in the imaging processes, in materials and physics and chemistry that are needed to actually make the semiconductor devices and understand how those devices operate,” said Karl Hirschman, professor in the department of electrical and microelectronic engineering at RIT’s College of Engineering, and director of microelectronic engineering.

Smart students are going to pick microelectronics up regardless, he said. “So maybe the real advantage is going to be that average set of engineers, where, if they’ve got the focused microelectronics background, they’re going to be right up there with the top level coming from anywhere. There’s always on the job learning, but the learning curve is much, much faster if they’ve got that background that’s more customized.”

Fig. 2: A first-year student in RIT’s BS in microelectronics program. Source: RIT

During the co-ops, students take on responsibility as a junior level engineer, and most are hired full-time upon completion of their BS. “Some of them have meaningful roles that they are filling,” said Hirschman. “And some companies have a year-round requisition for a co-op employment, because as long as they keep filling it with students, they won’t lose that position.”

Co-ops also provide a path for feedback on the latest industry technology. “The students are going to need a foundation and the best thing that we can do is teach them how to learn and be flexible and resilient,” said Doreen Edwards, dean of RIT’s College of Engineering. “What I like about the co-op students is they come back and say, ‘Well, industry is doing this now.’ And this really helps us as a university to keep our fingers on the pulse of what’s going on. We incorporate that new information in the context of the fundamentals, but apply it.”

Faculty advisory board meetings also provide a vehicle for industry feedback. “Right now, the big area is data analytics, and being able to handle large volumes of data and use that information to help them in their process control and things –– so we’re listening,” said Hirschman. “It’s a challenge, because to add something new, you have to take away something. But we also have opportunities for more elective courses and to help guide our students to some different areas that would benefit for those needs.”

The university makes sure students from other engineering majors can take a minor in microelectronics, or classes where they can get skills in the clean room that they can apply to a lot of different areas, said Edwards. “And that’s the way that we’re going to fill that gap between the jobs that are going to be available and the student graduates that are prepared to enter them.”

Hands-on courses developed with industry
Universities are finding novel ways to weave more semiconductor into their programs through targeted courses developed in partnership with industry, but they are not skipping the basics.

“The fundamentals and foundations are indispensable,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “For the first two to three years, I’d say the stuff that we are teaching are mostly, 20, 30, 40 years old, even 50 years old, which is absolutely right. We are teaching them the basics of electronics, communication, and signal processing. Then, in the last year, students know which electives they can take, and those would become more applied, more industry-focused. And because of the thread structure that we have, the students have the opportunity to convert to one particular discipline.”

Within that thread structure, students can choose courses created through Georgia Tech’s Curriculum Partnership Initiative, such as “ECE 4804 VLSI Design: Theory to Tapeout,” which was created with Apple.

“It’s a two-semester curriculum, and in the first semester the students designed a microprocessor,” said Raychowdhury. “They built the entire RISC-V microprocessor with an accelerator. It goes to TSMC over the summer for fabrication, then comes back in the second semester, when they do test and measurement. This is the first program like that in the country, where undergraduate students are taping out microprocessors on a scaled 65nm technology node, and getting it back and writing their own software that runs on their own microprocessor. This is a very hard class. In a single year, the students are going through the whole flow.”

The challenge with introducing a new course is that a university needs to make sure students have picked up necessary knowledge and prerequisites in earlier classes, said Raychowdhury. “But we have access to all the EDA tools the students would need, and also test and measurement equipment from companies such as Keysight. We work with companies and make changes so that we can teach both the theory and the applied part of design. So far, these are the hardest, but also the most popular classes.”

Collaborations include the AI Makerspace, launched with NVIDIA; a master research agreement with Micron; and a partnership with TI that supports ECE’s analog and mixed-signal design curriculum.

“The students are taping out analog circuits like A to D converters on a Texas Instruments analog process,” said Raychowdhury. In future they may tour TI’s clean room, but for now they get access to its process design kits. “The students are essentially designing chips in the PDKs, and it goes to the fab in Richardson, it comes back, and so on. They hire a lot of our students, and we have worked with them to change our curriculum so the ramp-up time when they start work can be reduced significantly. That’s the motivation.”

Similarly, Purdue is co-developing courses with industry on topics such as lithography with ASML, reliability with Cisco, and memory with Western Digital and Micron. “There’s going to be instructors from Purdue and technical experts from the company, who in some cases will help us design the courses in terms of content,” said Raghunathan. “In the case of ASML, they will co-teach the courses along with Purdue.”

RIT also is developing a course on memory based on feedback from Micron, which can be offered at undergrad or grad level in any engineering major or related field.

Embedding semiconductor into the curriculum already has shown promising results. “If you look at the first couple of cohorts of students who went through these hands-on courses, all of them got hired and they have started working in hardware companies,” said Georgia Tech’s Raychowdhury. “That is not very common. Undergraduate students typically don’t go and work in hardware companies doing design. Their first job is typically something to do with software, or they are working on tools.”

The graduates then return as alumni to provide guest lectures. “It’s a very fulfilling, positive feedback loop that we can create,” said Raychowdhury. “And we are seeing more students who are interested in doing hardware design, working on hard tech problems, and starting their own companies. Even if we can get one hardware company out of, say, 10 software companies, or even 50 software companies, that is successful. That will move the needle significantly.”

Curriculum aimed at the fab
Universities located close to semiconductor manufacturing facilities are highly motivated when it comes to augmenting curricula to meet industry needs. For example, Arizona State University has close ties with key players in the surrounding area, including TSMC, Intel, and Amkor, and it has numerous paths to encourage its students to pursue semiconductor jobs.

“ASU is part of a panel with some of the CTOs and higher C-level executives at some of the larger companies here in the Valley, and we have been hearing, ‘Hey, we need folks,’” said Binil Starly, professor and School Director of the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks within ASU’s schools of engineering.

ASU always had semiconductor classes, but is now highlighting them more prominently and creating a sequence, or map, for students to track careers.

“We have held focus group sessions because the companies themselves don’t know exactly what course they need,” said Starly. “Oftentimes they’re operating these phenomenally fancy, expensive machines. But if you open up the back of that machine at the end of the day, there are sensors, electrical wires, networking cables, motors, pumps, compressors. So a lot of those classes that we’ve been teaching are still relevant, but now you put a microelectronics spin on it.”

When it comes to adapting curricula, ASU — like many universities — typically starts at the PhD and MS level, because it is more flexible than the BS.

“You can bring industry experts to come and teach — that’s one side,” said Starly. “The other one is the example of Applied Materials setting up shop and pushing out newer technologies, and hopefully that will be touched by the professors and then their graduate students. Then, slowly, it makes its way into the bachelor’s level. The bachelor’s programs are the ones that take a long time, and we don’t typically touch those unless there is a specific reason to do so.”

A purpose-built BS in Engineering Science (Microelectronics) program has been established at ASU’s West Campus, closer to TSMC. For other engineering programs, semiconductors are integrated into the coursework, and there are elective classes that connect to microelectronics and the specific discipline.

“We advise our students, ‘You’re not required to choose these electives, but if you want to apply for an internship at TSMC or Intel or Samsung, or do a co-op, then take these classes because you would be better prepared than a generic form of an engineer,” said Starly. “And they are foundational enough that if you don’t want to go into the microelectronics industry, they are equally applicable in other industries. Some of the electives are foundational in the knowledge sense. Others are more skills-driven, where they go in the lab or a facility and use some of the equipment that’s typically in a fab.”

Enrollments in new packaging classes have increased because students hear that jobs are available. “It’s not a very deep class, but it helps you understand all the processes, so that you’re not clueless when you go into a fab,” said Starly. “They can say, ‘Oh, that’s what a CVD is,’ a chemical vapor deposition process, because they use all these acronyms.”

Universities can build foundational manufacturing classes that speak to how a fab operates, the definition of a clean room, dos and don’ts, regulations, and standard practices and protocols. “Those fundamental things can be covered — even having students experiencing what a clean fab environment is like, wearing those bunny suits and seeing if you can work at a six-hour shift or an eight-hour shift,” said Starley.

Others agree. “Teaching them the core concepts at the university level and then adding additional training once they’re in a specific employer is key,” said Tom Pennell, education and outreach coordinator, and process integration specialist at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility. “Every clean-room facility is going to have slightly different operations. There’s going to be some standard things that everybody needs to know, and the nuanced things — specific company policy, and so on — where they can get that more in-depth training on the job.”

Broader community outreach
Community colleges are largely taking care of technician-level training, but they also can be a source of engineering talent. Universities are offering pathways to map two-year associate’s degrees into a four-year BS degree, along with wrap-around support and stipends. There are also new certificates, courses, and colleges aimed at diverse groups. For example:

• RIT’s National Science Foundation-funded EMERGE-MICRO program maps students from Monroe Community College and the Finger Lakes Community College into its BS, with GF and Micron on an advisory committee.
• RIT also is developing a semiconductor certificate for non-degree, or non-RIT students and offers summer short courses for industrial folks to upskill.
• ASU’s 2+2 offers the BS in smaller chunks that enables community college students to take a credit while they are working a job.
• Purdue has a program with Ivy Tech Community College called Green2Gold, and Purdue Polytechnic Institute offers four-year vocational degrees that are a step up from associates degrees, with links to SK hynix.
• Cornell and Micron are working on an orbital welding technique class for both technicians and engineers.
• Cornell also partnered with the Board of Cooperative Educational Services in NY and Swagelok on an ultra-high purity gas line welding course.
• Georgia Tech is launching a College on Lifelong Learning to create and deliver courses for degree and non-degree programs, or certifications.

Conclusion
Overall, universities are aiming to introduce students to semiconductor early while also acknowledging that their graduates are entering a world in flux.

“Interest among students change and evolve over time,” said Georgia Tech’s Chowdary. “You’re talking about 17- and 18-year-olds, so they are not necessarily thinking too far ahead. Disciplines like computer engineering has become very popular because a lot of students want to make sure that whatever we do in terms of AI and AI regulation and systems that are super energy-hungry, for example, they want some role in in how these systems are designed in the future. The popularity of an engineering discipline might change, but one of the common themes I’ve seen around this discussion is that the students are very well aware of how they want to contribute to the society and to the world in the long run, and they are always looking for opportunities to study disciplines that have a positive impact on society.”

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