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Semiconductor/Microsystems education is in growing demand due to the demand to bring semiconducting manufacturing back to the USA. At the University of New Mexico (UNM), we have six courses that teach different aspects of semiconductor/microsystems manufacturing from theory to hands-on experience. The Advanced Microfabrication course is a multidisciplinary graduate course that is taken by students with various background and primarily from two different programs i) Nanoscience and Microsystems Engineering (NSME) Program (an interdisciplinary program across various schools and departments) and ii) students from the Mechanical Engineering Department. The course typically consists of a series of lectures along with hands-on microfabrication labs in a cleanroom which were designed to complement the lectures. The course material is multidisciplinary with topics ranging from chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, statistics, material science and biomedical. This comparison study investigates several factors such as lab components, synchronous online versus in-person lectures, and students discipline to determine impact on the final exam (performance) in the course. Based on n=99 students over seven years it was determined that students from the interdisciplinary programs performed better with an average score of 64.04 ±13.26% compared to ME students 55.02 ±16.81%. It was also determined that both in-person lectures and students participating in labs had a significant impact on their final exam grades. Students who attended in-person lectures scored an average of 64.35 ± 15.11% whereas online students scored 51.81 ±14.77%, that is an increase of 12.54%. Students attending hands-on labs also had a significant impact resulting in a 10.17% increase in scores. The results demonstrate that the multidisciplinary material of advanced semiconductor manufacturing is potentially best learned through a combination of in-person lectures and hands-on lab experience and that students who have a more interdisciplinary background are likely to perform better due to the multidisciplinary course contents. 

Not AvailableWith a high demand to fill jobs in the semiconductor manufacturing due to the Chips Act there is a need to increase job readiness in graduate education, as industry members think current graduate students are not well prepared to transition from academia to industry. Current graduate academic education pedagogy does an excellent job of providing students with knowledge and scientific skills, such as technical writing and communication. However, current graduate education often does not fully prepare students for industry. Students can get the necessary experience through an internship, but this is not always possible due to location, research time constraints, citizenship, and academic time commitments. Students often struggle with transitioning from an academic setting to industry, because they have only ever experienced academia, and most faculty teaching students have little or not experience working in industry. To overcome this challenge, we developed a novel two course curriculum that aims to mimic a semiconductor industry internship. This is accomplished through “role-playing” courses where students act as internships in the 1st semester (onboarding) and then they transition to employees in the second semester, where they will work with other “students/employees” on creating a “startup” microsystem company. The instructors act as Program Managers/ boses. The courses use problem-based learning (PBL) in a nanofabrication cleanroom. The courses are designed to give students hands-on experience to provide them with the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) that are needed in industry. The key KSA’s were determined by an industrial panel of process engineers via a survey which was used to determine which KSA industry (multinational and SME) value the most. The same survey was given to faculty members to compare differences between what faculty and industry value as critical KSA’s needed in the semiconductor industry. To determine where the gaps were between traditional graduate courses and industry a survey listing 48 different KSA’s was provided to both industrial members and engineering faculty. The survey allowed the industry panel to state what KSA’s were important and what KSA’s they thought Universities already do a good job of teaching to graduate students. The initial results showed that the industry panel thought 37.5% of the KSA’s were important and lacking in current graduate education. That means 63.5% of the KSA’s were either not important or that universities already do a good job of teaching those KSA’s. However, engineering faculty said 58.33% of the KSA’s were needed and not currently taught. This shows a strong discrepancy between what Professors think and what industry consider necessary KSA’s. The KSA topics were divided into categories and the ones with the largest discrepancy between faculty and industry were essential skills and statistics. The results of this study will be beneficial to other programs that wish to provide similar experiences for their graduate students.