Micron and the National Science Foundation have formed an unusual partnership with 21 prestigious universities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to support workforce development efforts laid out in the CHIPS and Science Act.
The group of 21 founding universities includes Harvard, MIT, Brown, RPI, Princeton and Virginia Tech. (A full list follows.)
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said the collaboration to develop a diverse STEM talent pipeline will be a model for other regions of the US. “By uniting institutions across the Northeast we can further develop the talent needed to produce leading memory at Micron’s massive scale here in New York,” he said in a statement.
The group, called the Northeast University Semiconductor Network, will focus on collaboration, innovation and problem solving. It hopes to enhance curriculum by sharing industry-backed technical content and providing learning programs with greater access to cleanrooms used in chip production and teaching labs.
Micron and NSF had previously announced a partnership to jointly invest $10 million to fund and develop semiconductor curricula at colleges and universities.
US Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer joined NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan and Micron executives at a press conference in Syracuse on Monday to celebrate the creation of the network. Schumer was considered a sponsor and major force behind the CHIPS and Science Act, which includes provisions for funding future education in STEM careers.
Micron plans $100 billion in chip fabs and related work in Syracuse and Upstate New York. The company is one of the largest makers of memory and storage chips, an industry which in recent months has been hammered by lower demand for PCs and smartphones and many other electronics following a surge in production during the pandemic that has left overstuffed inventories. The convergence of market factors resulted in a down fiscal second quarter for Micron, its worst in the past 13 years, due to an ”exceptionally weak pricing environment,” Mehrotra told analysts in March.
However, Mehrotra has joined a chorus of top chip executives hopeful for a reversal in 2024 partly due to the popularity of generative AI software and its dependence on memory products.
RELATED: Micron revenues tank but CEO Mehrotra sees promise with AI and its memory demands
Founding partners of the Northeast University Semiconductor Network:
- Brown University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Clarkson University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University (Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island)
- Harvard University
- Hofstra University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- New York University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Princeton University
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- Syracuse University
- The City University of New York System (CUNY)
- The State University of New York System (SUNY)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Rochester
- University of Virginia
- Virginia Tech University