The National Science Foundation (NSF) is collaborating with a group of tech giants to accelerate the development of semiconductor innovations and expand the workforce supporting the industry.
In partnership with IBM, Intel, Ericsson and Samsung, the NSF Future of Semiconductors (FuSe) program will invest a total of $45.6 million — including funds from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 — to support semiconductor-focused research and skills development projects at 47 universities and research institutions, including eight minority-serving universities.
“Our investment will help train the next generation of talent necessary to fill key openings in the semiconductor industry and grow our economy from the middle out and bottom up,” says NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “By supporting novel, transdisciplinary research, we will enable breakthroughs in semiconductors and microelectronics and address the national need for a reliable, secure supply of innovative semiconductor technologies, systems and professionals.”
Ericsson CTO Erik Ekudden comments, “Innovation in semiconductors is fundamental for the development of next generation communications systems. As an active contributor to and participant in NSF’s Future of Semiconductors (FuSe) program, Ericsson is delighted to support 6G innovation and workforce development together with leading U.S. academia.”
Vijay Narayanan, fellow and strategist in physics of AI at IBM Research, comments, “Faced with rising compute demands, semiconductor innovation will be required across materials, devices, heterogeneous integration, advanced packaging, and compute architectures to enable an energy efficient and sustainable full stack compute solution. IBM is proud to support the FuSe program’s latest investment to accelerate semiconductor innovation to empower the next generation of innovators.”
