SYRACUSE, N.Y. — An official with Micron Technology calls the Northeast University Semiconductor Network “an amazing opportunity to create generational change.” 

Manish Bhatia, executive VP of global operations at Micron Technology, called the group “…a transformational shift in how universities and industry partner together, not just over five years, but over 10 years, 20 years, and the decades beyond that. This will help drive fundamental change in emerging research that’s needed for semiconductor development.”

He contends the network will “help us to be able to train the engineers to operate our semiconductor manufacturing fabs that are at the very leading edge of smart manufacturing, and to train and upskill and reskill the technicians of the future who operate and maintain the equipment and facilities in these networks.”

In his remarks, Bhatia also thanked the many university officials who gathered at Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center for the April 10 announcement about the partnership.

More than 20 universities are involved in an effort to form a training pipeline to build the future of the semiconductor industry in Central New York.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.); Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU); and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the network.

Besides Schumer, speakers at the event included NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan. The senator had invited Panchanathan to meet with local stakeholders, the Democrat’s office said in an April 10 news release.

The schools involved include the entire SUNY and CUNY systems; Syracuse University; Cornell University; Clarkson University; New York University; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Rochester Institute of Technology; Barnard College in New York City; and other renowned programs at institutions like Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, per Schumer’s office.

“There’s a lot of work ahead for all of us, but if that work is supported by all of us cooperating, it’s going to benefit everybody in New York and in the region,” Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud said in his remarks to open the event. “I’m proud of this university’s role in that work but proud also that our role is subordinate to us all working together for the success of Micron.”

Institutions in the Northeast University Semiconductor Network will collaborate with Micron and the NSF to “modernize” curriculum; create greater access to cleanroom and teaching labs; and “bolster” both public research and research opportunities for students, Schumer’s office said.

“Today is the start of us building the workforce of the future, a group of all ages, all backgrounds, from across New York State that is going to bring manufacturing back to upstate New York and to America,” Schumer said in his remarks inside Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center.

The schools involved have “strong” undergraduate and graduate programs in engineering and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to train the workers. The partnership is spurred by the CHIPS and Science Act, Schumer noted. 

Boise, Idaho–based Micron Technology plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years on a semiconductor manufacturing campus at the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay. Schumer called that announcement back on Oct. 4, 2022 “step one.”

“But step two is to train workers, thousands and thousands of workers in good paying jobs to work at this huge chip fab,” Schumer said. “Without the workers, it can’t succeed.”

“It’s about people, people, people because people are the ones that have the ideas. People are the ones that innovate. And people are the ones that create the impact,” NSF’s Panchanathan said in his remarks. 

The program is a direct result of the expansion of the NSF to include a new Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate, a Schumer-authored provision included in his original Endless Frontier Act that because the CHIPS and Science Act that passed into law and builds on the $10 million announced earlier this year for Micron and the NSF to boost semiconductor curricula in colleges and universities across the country. 

Schumer explained that his CHIPS and Science Act authorizes billions in new investment for the NSF’s STEM workforce training and education programs, and the senator wants those federal dollars to be used to “prepare the next generation of workers for the thousands of good-paying construction, manufacturing, and innovation jobs on the horizon,” his office said.

Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), on April 10 addressed the gathering at Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center.