Semiconductor Education

Establishing graduate and undergraduate semiconductor certificates at UVM.

With the historic investment in semiconductors brought about by the CHIPS and Science Act, the SIA has projected a significant labor market gap. This is especially important in Vermont, where GlobalFoundries has been developing GaN-on-Si technology to enable low-cost, high-efficiency power and RF devices for a connected, electrified future. As Vermont's land-grant instutution comitted to supporting the local high-tech workforce and enabling a thiving future for people and planet, UVM has embarked on a focused effort to grow capability in semiconductor education.

This project is ongoing and has established both graduate and undergraduate certificates in semiconductor engineering and physics. In doing so, new laboratory facilities for on-wafer characterization, IC deprocessing, and fabrication have been established and utilized in hands-on labs for IC fabrication and device physics courses. When not in use for teaching, these labs serve dual purpose as resources to support graduate research, furthering semiconductor innovation in Vermont.

Beyond post-secondary education, we have developed educational materials surrounding integrated circuit fabrication as part of a multi-group effort to run an in-person workshop for Vermont K-12 educators in June 2025, equipping them to introduce semiconductor concepts in the classroom and through afterschool clubs and activities.

  • Parmida Amngostar, Soheyl Faghir Hagh, Alireza Fath, Yi Liu, Ian Cassidy*, Swarup Chakraborty, Alexander Hoefer, Lanhjamin Tran, Cooper Duggan, Dryver Huston, Jackson Anderson, Tian Xia, “Summer Program Advancing Robotics and Knowledge in Microelectronics for K-12 (SPARK),” AVS 71, Charlotte, NC, USA, 2025.

  • J. Anderson, J. Frolik, M. Gallagher and R. Headrick, “WIP: An Experiential Undergraduate Certificate in Semiconductor Engineering and Physics,” 2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Washington, DC, USA, 2024, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893112.

This work has been generously supported by the following sponsors:

  • Semiconductor curriculum: Department of Education award #P116Z220043.
  • K-12 teacher outreach: National Science Foundation1, supplement to award #2119485

  1. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. ↩