SU plans new Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing

SYRACUSE — The technology behind modern semiconductor manufacturing is among the most intricate and sophisticated on the planet. That’s how Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor and provost, at Syracuse University (SU) opened her remarks on May 16 as SU announced plans to launch its Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing. SU plans to spend $10 million to help pay for the center, and Onondaga County will also provide a $10 million grant.  “It’s awe inspiring. It’s captivating,” Ritter said in reference to the technology. “And thanks to this investment by Onondaga County, we have an opportunity to open exciting, fulfilling, and well-paid jobs in advanced manufacturing to generations of Syracuse students.” Ritter went on to say that the Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing will “demystify” careers in chip manufacturing for the Syracuse community and “inspire students of all ages to join this rewarding field.”  “Embracing these students is critical, given the palpable regional and national need for a far more robust and diverse STEM workforce,” Ritter said in her remarks. “These students will build today’s chips and design the next generation that will maintain U.S. leadership in semiconductors for decades to come.” STEM is short for science, technology, engineering, mathematics. It’s described as a center that will bring together expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, manufacturing processes, optimization, and robotics to “advance the science of semiconductor manufacturing,” per the university. 

“The state-of-the-art teaching and research facility we’re building as part of this will replicate an autonomous advanced-manufacturing floor; will enable research and design,” Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud said in his remarks. “The center will provide the very definition of hands-on learning and training that students need to meet the needs and meet the moment.”  Officials announced details of the new Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing in an event at the National Veterans Resource Center at 101 Waverly Ave. on the SU campus.  “To support that work, we are going to be hiring many new faculty scholars over the next five years, and, in particular, we expect to grow our student enrollment in the College of Engineering and Computer Science by 50 percent in the next four years,” Syverud said. “And that’s to keep up with the market demands created by Micron and the burgeoning U.S. chips industry. We will be especially focused on recruiting from area high schools, including the new STEAM high school that has had such hard work behind it.”  Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) 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.  The Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing is part of a more than $100 million investment in “strategically transforming” STEM and expanding SU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) over the next five years, the university noted.  SU will house the center in its Center of Science and Technology, and it will be situated within ECS. Syracuse University believes the new center will position it and the CNY region as a global leader in research and education on the intelligent manufacturing of semiconductors.  Work on renovating existing space into the new facility is already underway, Syverud told reporters during the announcement event. The center should be completed in two years, Ritter told Syverud in response to a reporter’s question about the construction timeline. “As we transition from an amazing site-selection process and an amazing planning process to executing, it is critical for us to meet the moment that you’ve heard from the vice chancellor and chancellor that we have all of the tools in the toolbox,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said in his remarks. “One of the major tools in recruiting Micron to get here was this facility and what this represents and what this represents specifically for veteran labor and that’s a critical tool.”