The NSF Research Traineeship Program (NRT) awarded a five-year, $3 million funding grant to the University of South Florida (USF) for the development and implementation of a comprehensive and experiential learning-based education, research, training and skills development program in semiconductor design, manufacturing and packaging for graduate students. The NRT is a prestigious, national program that supports annual cohorts of trainees in developing the skills, knowledge and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high- priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.
Principal Investigator, Professor Ashok Kumar (Mechanical Engineering), along with Co-Principal Investigators, Professor Srinivas Katkoori (Computer Science & Engineering), Associate Professor Albert Kim (Medical Engineering), Associate Professor Yasin Yilmaz (Electrical Engineering), and Professor Norma Alcantar (Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering) were awarded the grant for a project entitled “NRT: Science, Technology, Engineering, Program for Upward Partnership (STEP-UP) for Advancing Microelectronics Education and Training.” This grant will provide approximately 23 graduate (15 doctoral and 8 master) student fellowships to advance research in the much-needed field of semiconductor technologies.
“Much-publicized semiconductor chips shortage has impacted several critical industries. A skilled and diverse pipeline of workers is critical to building a sustainable domestic semiconductor industry and to achieving the CHIPS Act economic and national security goals. This NRT grant will provide to better prepare master’s and doctoral students for the interdisciplinary talents required in semiconductor chip development,” said Ashok Kumar, the principal investigator of the NSF NRT project.
“USF’s STEP-UP NRT program is a unique cutting-edge training program that not only trains a graduate student in interdisciplinary technical skills and novel convergent approaches but also emphasizes on all-round trainee development in terms of communication, teamwork, project management, ethics and leadership to create tomorrow’s world leaders in the semiconductor field.” said Srinivas Katkoori, Co-investigator of the NRT project.
“Semiconductor industries are very reluctant to hire students without having any hands-on experience in semiconductor standard clean room facilities,” said Senior Personnel Robert Tufts and Rich Everly from the Nanotechnology Research and Education Center (NREC). They will be involved in providing the basic semiconductor fundamentals, processing, and design concept in fabrication of functional semiconductor devices in class 1000 clean room facilities at NREC.
Senior personnel Steve Kozlowski (Psychology Department), Grandon Gill (Muma College of Business), Sudeep Sarkar (Computer Science & Engineering Department) and Joanna Burchfield (College of Engineering) will be involved in comprehensive education and training activities for NRT Fellows in leadership, communication, teamwork, ethics, entrepreneurship skills, etc.
“This NSF-funded NRT program will be a model for a future interdisciplinary graduate program at USF and it brings significant benefit to our institution. It forges a convergent and innovative program to train graduates in Semiconductor Technology,” said Ruth Bahr, Dean of Graduate Studies, USF (Tampa Campus).
“USF’s ability to provide advanced semiconductor training to graduate students in a teaching clean room will strengthen the U.S. technical workforce. USF will increase capacity-building of skilled graduate scholars through strategic public-private collaborations and partnerships with government agencies, national laboratories, and academia.” said Sylvia Thomas, USF Vice President of Research and Innovation.
“The NSF Research Traineeship Award will significantly impact the quality of graduate education at USF and will bring a wide range of benefits to the research scholars we serve,” said Prasant Mohapatra, Provost and Executive Vice President. “At USF, we believe highly integrative graduate research training equips students with the skills and knowledge to tackle complex, real-world challenges. These programs foster critical thinking, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, which are vital for addressing the pressing issues of our time