People power the semiconductor industry. Fostering a skilled, diverse workforce is vital in efforts to meet global demand for semiconductors for emerging technologies. But as tech continues to grow rapidly, the semiconductor industry is facing a talent crunch. One solution sees industry, academia and governments partnering to fill skills gaps and accelerate learning pathways into careers based on real world needs. So, how is the Arm Education team working with educational institutions and governments globally to establish future-focused education and training frameworks and standards for the semiconductor industry?
Initiatives include developing free educational and research resources and launching the Semiconductor Education Alliance, an ecosystem of leading industry and academic partners.
We explore how 3 pioneering educational institutions, in the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam, are working with Arm Education.
“The Semiconductor Education Alliance is great because we have got partners around the world who are focused on the same problems but have slightly different contexts. We can now look at gaps on a much more global level.”
Claire Lucas, Professor of Engineering Teaching and Learning at King's College, London
King's College, London has spearheaded efforts to develop engineering courses that are interdisciplinary and accessible. The faculty is focused on attracting diverse talent to the semiconductor industry and equipping students with practical skills that can be applied to critical areas, including sustainability and health.
Working with Arm, the team is developing postgraduate modules covering in-demand topics for example embedded system design and technology, innovation and management. Other collaborative initiatives include designing free online courses and establishing knowledge skills frameworks for engineers.
Claire Lucas, Professor of Engineering Teaching and Learning at King's College, says:
“The gap that we are trying to fill with this Arm partnership is about conversion. What do you need to know to take you from a traditional mechanical engineering degree to being able to work in this exploding UK semiconductor industry? King’s is all about attracting new kinds of people to engineering: 50% of our professors are female and 40% of the academics in our department are female, which is incredible.
“The Semiconductor Education Alliance is great because we have got partners around the world who are focused on the same problems but have slightly different contexts. We can now look at gaps on a much more global level.
“We also have a collaborative project funded by Innovate UK (the UK's national innovation agency) that is focused on semiconductor skills, particularly at postgraduate level. We are working with Arm as part of that to develop online courses that will be free for UK students to access. They will allow students to understand the fundamentals of what they need to then be able to access our Engineering with Management MSc. We realize that not all students will have the prerequisites, or they may have been working in industry for 20 years, it could be years since they have done these things.”
In the US, Cornell University and Arm Education are working together to develop credit courses that respond directly to urgent needs in the semiconductor industry, especially in areas for example embedded systems and robotics.
The partnership also helped Cornell students identify funding to build an intuitive learning platform called MiniBot (XRP) that enables undergraduate and high school students to learn about robotics. Astronaut and Cornell Alumn, Renee Frohnert, will be taking the MiniBot (XRP) to space on her next Virgin Galactic mission.
Prof. David R. Schneider, Director of MEng Studies in Systems Engineering at Cornell University, says: “There are very significant skill gaps between what students learn in school and what is needed in industry today. The three areas that we really homed in on as having the greatest need were embedded systems, Internet of Things and robotics.
“In there, you also get a lot of the hot topics of today; you're going to touch on machine learning and data analytics, computer vision, control systems. We wanted to develop courses that could not only help students get the basic understanding and knowledge in these cyber-physical systems areas but be able to work across many different disciplines that are associated with developing embedded system technology.
“Cornell embraces working with industry and collaborating, initiatives like the Semiconductor Education Alliance really help say that more clearly. We are working with industry to meet workforce needs, to prepare people not just for today's needs but needs 10 years from now. What is great about this work is we are taking a larger, more holistic approach, so hopefully we're able to develop smarter, more responsible solutions going forwards.”
“Joining Arm Education allows us to have a large and reputable community in the field of electronics and semiconductor chips. It helps us to be more confident, create momentum for us to actively participate and develop relationships with businesses.”
Tran Quang Anh, Vice President, Posts & Telecommunications Institute of Technology, Vietnam
The Faculty of Electronic Engineering at the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) is a leading training and research faculty in Vietnam. Working with Arm Education has enabled PTIT staff to access teaching materials and IP cores that support curriculum development and research.
Tran Quang Anh, Vice President, Posts & Telecommunications Institute of Technology says: “Based on the teaching materials provided by Arm, we study, select and transfer the contents into several teaching subjects for undergraduate students – such Microprocessor Engineering and Embedded Systems – in the form of study materials, experiments and subject plans. Students can use the materials to support their study and do homework assignments and projects.
“Arm Education is helping us equip our students with skills and experience in designing and programming embedded systems, and in designing electronics circuits and ICs, as well. These skills and experience are important for our students to work well in an industrial environment.
“The key benefits are threefold. First, access to large, good, and in-depth materials on electronics and semiconductor circuits, enhancing PTIT’s educational programs in the ICT field. Second, access to Arm's IP technology (through the Arm Academic Access program) and learning materials thereby applying, customizing and creating sample products for training and research purposes. Third, access to materials and practical experiments for STEM training. enabling PTIT to train the young community."
“Working with Arm Education allows us to join a large and reputable community in the field of electronics and semiconductor chips. It helps us to be more confident, create momentum for us to actively participate and develop relationships with businesses.
Arm Education is helping to enable each of the three initiatives and more through our educational and research enablement programs.
In the education space we offer access to a wide array of teaching materials for Higher Education and K-12 institutions through open access platforms for example GitHub or edX and Coursera for online course content. To date, over 2,000 universities have utilized our free teaching resources, while over 90,000 learners from 160 countries have accessed our free online course content. Additionally, thousands of K-12 teachers worldwide have benefitted from access to free teaching resources that support improved outcomes in STEM and Computing education.
Our Arm Academic Access (AAA) program empowers researchers by offering free access to Arm’s proven IP, without ongoing royalties or licensing costs, to universities and research institutes involved in non-commercial research. Over 140 universities are currently part of the AAA program, conducting cutting-edge research on Arm IP. Examples of this research can be viewed here.
To foster strong communities of practice in semiconductor education and research, we have collaborated with academic institutions like the University of Southampton to establish environments where scholars can unite to share and contribute best practices in SoC research (SoCLabs) and Computer Engineering education (EduLabs).
In summary, through these interventions, we aim to democratize access to our educational and research enablement tools that support and encourage positive outcomes in the semiconductor space.
The public profile of the semiconductor industry has never been higher. Geopolitical tensions around the security of supply chains means that many national and regional governments are now implementing workforce development strategies as a matter of priority. This represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for governments, industry and academia to come together and build a standard set of knowledge, skills and attributes (KSA) frameworks that enable and accelerate workforce development. Arm Education has already made a start with our own KSA Framework, and you can find more about this initiative in our recently published series of blog posts.[1] [2]
If you would like to find out more about the Semiconductor Education Alliance and related activities, get in contact at education@arm.com. To access the wealth of freely accessible educational materials we have created to support academics, students and aspiring engineers to teach, learn and develop on Arm, visit http://www.arm.com/education.
1. Introducing the KSA Framework: https://community.arm.com/education-hub/b/nicholas-sample/posts/introducing-the-arm-ksa-framework2. Arm KSA Framework: Theory and applications: https://community.arm.com/education-hub/b/nicholas-sample/posts/arm-ksa-framework-theory-and-applications