Beginnings: Workforce Innovation and Inclusion in Semiconductors and Emerging Research Areas

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The increasingly urgent need for an educated STEM workforce, especially in the semiconductor industry, is recognized by corporate leaders and U.S. policymakers alike. The global demand for workers in this sector is projected to grow to 100,000 per year until 2030 to meet production needs. This project, Workforce Innovation and Inclusion in Semiconductors and Emerging Research Areas (WIISER) seeks to engage undergraduate students in industry internships near the beginning of their secondary education. Diversifying the STEM workforce will be essential to advancing the role of the U.S. as a global technology leader. Because innovative ideas may arise from all individuals, the project will aim to involve students from diverse backgrounds including transfer students, women and underrepresented minorities, Pell-grant eligible and first-generation college students. The project will leverage deep partnerships with a leading industry and research innovation ecosystem in semiconductor design and manufacturing to create transformative learning experiences for students from the University of California (UC) campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz. WIISER will expand and diversify the available workforce for the semiconductor industry through offering two tracks of experiential learning and professional development programs. One group of students will work in the Berkeley Marvell Nanofabrication Lab over the course of an academic year and through the summer (NanoLab Fellows). Another group will be placed in 8-week paid summer internships with semiconductor companies (Summer Fellows). Work plans will be scoped in collaboration between UC and the host company to ensure both meaningful experiences for students and substantive work outcomes for hosts. All Fellows will participate in weekly workshops during the summer to boost their job-readiness skills and overcome latent challenges, such as imposter syndrome. Students will be assigned a mentor who will provide expertise and guidance as the students navigate their internship and career pathways into the semiconductor industry. The evaluation plan will test the effectiveness of our project on student retention and growth of professional identity and sense of self-efficacy. Our project aims to foster regional learning ecosystems transferrable to other emerging technology fields. This project aligns with the NSF ExLENT Program, funded by the NSF TIP and EDU Directorates, as it seeks to support experiential learning opportunities for individuals from diverse professional and educational backgrounds to increase their interest in, and their access to, career pathways in emerging technology fields. 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.