Workforce Development

Back in February of this year, we launched SEMI Works™, a landmark SEMI program designed to grow and sustain the electronics industry talent pipeline from the ground up. But it was much more than a program launch. The introduction was a resounding statement of our passionate commitment to workforce development and its incontrovertible importance to the future of the microelectronics industry. No one’s passion for workforce development burns brighter than SEMI CEO Ajit Manocha’s. In April, he reiterated SEMI’s focus to make good on this commitment and laid out the broad outlines of SEMI Works. From the outset, our sights have been firmly fixed on execution. The National Science Foundation (NSF), a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in science and engineering, recently lent its support to SEMI Works with a $6 million investment to develop a scalable, sustainable apparatus to meet current and future talent requirements of the end-to-end electronics manufacturing industry. And more financial backing – this time from abroad – could well be in the offing. We are pressing ahead to develop the infrastructure to connect talent, industry and education providers at scale. We are expanding proven programs for exciting and engaging students in experiential learning opportunities at a young age. And we are paving the way to offer career and educational pathways through high school, college and adult and veteran training. Regional partners are essential to scaling these programs, and to date we have identified three regions for pilots to develop the infrastructure and business model that will be heartbeat of SEMI Works.Moore’s Law is losing steam, raising hard questions about the semiconductor industry’s ability to maintain its swift pace of innovation. The clarion call for chipmakers is to design ever smaller electronic circuits with higher processing power for devices with shrinking form factors. More computing muscle is crucial to advances in smart manufacturing, medtech, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and the IoT – all technologies that generate and consume staggering amounts of data.Yet no obstacle to industry growth stands as tall as the brick wall of the talent shortage. A highly skilled workforce is essential to invention. As an industry, we’ll only be equal to the world’s greatest challenges by recruiting, training and retaining the best and brightest.At this critical juncture in what is the world’s most strategic industry, the public and private sectors must work collaboratively to leverage their collective strength to produce the talent required to power technology development today and well into the future.In 2020 SEMI will mark 50 years of facilitating collaborations to mint new technologies and markets. We are uniquely positioned, with our members, to lead what history may one day record as our most important effort to date, a push that could impact the world for decades to come. The industry needs a lasting solution to expand and sustain its talent pipeline. SEMI is taking decisive action with SEMI Works. Mike Russo is vice president of Global Industry Advocacy at SEMI.

The future of the semiconductor industry began to blossom recently in Seoul, South Korea as young, innovative minds teased out secrets to electronics manufacturing and their path to enter the industry one day. Twenty-seven middle schoolers gathered in early August at Yonsei University for SEMI High Tech U (HTU), the worldwide SEMI program that introduces students to science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) careers over three days of hands-on activities and experiential learning. Since 2001, HTU has reached some 8,000 students in nine countries.Semiconductor giants including Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research and Dongjin Semichem were key teachers as representatives from the companies gave theoretical and practical lectures to pique the students’ interest in STEM educations and careers. The speakers, all experts in microelectronics, surveyed microchips and solar cells, mathematical and scientific experimentation, engineering design and the inner workings of semiconductor manufacturing before the students broke off into teams for lessons largely of their own making. Fine-tuning a wooden contraption – a Statapult – to hurl a ball as far as possible might not sound like the stuff of microelectronics, but it drew on the type of problem-solving skills and creativity the students will need to thrive in the semiconductor industry. Student teams made adjustments to the levers of miniature catapults, then tested the throwing power of the devices. After the ball tosses, they reconvened as a class to share lessons in how they calibrated their catapults for a longer tossing distance and ways they could improve the devices’ performance. Students also took tours of two very different semiconductor manufacturing settings – one virtual and the other real. The young learners donned virtual reality headsets for a simulated walk-through of Applied Materials (the tour was sponsored by the company), then slipped on bunny suits for a tour of Yonsei University's BIT micro fab and a close-up look of how semiconductors are made.But it was the ever-popular Human Calculator game that inspired the greatest thrill as students dove deep into technology. During the exercise, they converted numbers into binary and then traced the digits through a series of gates in an electronic circuit, an exercise requiring careful team communication and concentration to generate the right outputs. The students surprised SEMI Korea employees and instructors, and themselves, by completing the exercise with record speed. Their time: less than two seconds.Human resources managers from sponsor companies were on hand to give the middle school students a head start in their careers with lessons in resume writing and career management. In mock interviews, the students honed their interviewing skills. And in meetings with SEMI High Tech U alumni they learned how their predecessors worked their way into semiconductor industry and their focus of study in college.To be sure, the day was rich in details about working in the microelectronics industry. But did it meet the students’ expectations? In a survey before the event, the more than two dozen students, on average, rated their knowledge of microelectronics at 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, a score that jumped to 7.7 after completing HTU. Their favorite module? No surprise: Engineering Design. In this exercise, the students designed a carrier for six 12-ounce beverage cans using only decidedly low-tech materials such as strings, rubber bands and wooden boards. Their innovations were studies in high creativity and ingenuity – just the type of imaginations the semiconductor industry needs. SEMI Korea has offered SEMI HTU since 2011. This year, various other career development programs such as semiconductor manufacturing tutorials and mentoring are planned as SEMI Korea continues to sow the seeds of the next generation of industry workers. Jaegwan Shim is a marketing specialist at SEMI Korea.

Like all other SEMICON expositions, SEMICON West last month gathered thousands of people to make business connections and learn about the industry and its opportunities. But the events are also great venues for SEMI’s Global Industry Advocacy team to meet with industry leaders from around the world as well as regional SEMI presidents to discuss policy issues we face in each region and best practices for how to address them. The time was also ripe for us to meet with various advisory groups and advocacy committees to examine current issues.Top on our list at SEMICON West was a discussion with SEMI’s International Board of Directors about the then newly announced actions by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to tighten export controls in trade with Korea. SEMI depends heavily on and is grateful for insights from its International Board, Board of Industry Leaders and various Regional Advisory Boards. They are crucial to our ability to develop and execute industry advocacy strategies that take into account regional idiosyncrasies, geopolitical sensitivities and global supply chain complexities. SEMI is unique in its ability to bring a global perspective to engaging governments around the world in real time. In the case of the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea, we engaged SEMI members in Japan and Korea as we developed our strategy.On the SEMI America’s front, the North American Advisory Board and its Public Policy Committee met at SEMICON West for a spirited discussion on how to best manage our lobbying activities and how regional and U.S. companies should be involved. The committee’s perspectives and guidance will be invaluable as we chart a path forward in these challenging times in global trade.Our Global Industry Advocacy team also continues to build out SEMI Works, SEMI’s comprehensive initiative to develop a talent pipeline and overcome the industry’s longstanding shortage of skilled workers. SEMI Works focuses on stimulating greater interest in STEM careers, aligning STEM course curriculum and industry needs, and connecting students with relevant courses and careers. We are in the process of launching three regional pilot programs that will enable us to develop the SEMI Works business model that we’ll use to scale the program and ensure the initiative is robust and sustainable. At SEMICON West the Global Advocacy team convened regional stakeholders involved in these pilots to share information on opportunities and challenges and to discuss various implementation strategies.At SEMICON West we also facilitated meetings with U.S. government representatives aimed at improving cybersecurity in manufacturing and developing a commercial security model that will strengthen security throughout the supply chain in areas vital to industry growth such as traceability.After nearly 50 years, SEMI still excels in enabling the industry collaborations key to growth and innovation. Collaboration is also a driving force within SEMI Global Industry Advocacy as we continue to work with SEMI members, our various boards and governments around the world to advance the interests of the semiconductor industry.Mike Russo is vice president of Global Industry Advocacy at SEMI.

On the day I joined SEMI in March of 2017, I was filled with excitement to be on-boarding at a time when great, leaping strides in innovation were driving the rapid expansion of our ecosystem. In my many conversations with members that followed, I was not surprised that a vast majority ranked among their top concerns the persistent challenge of attracting, training and retaining the talent needed to grow their businesses. Later that year, I raised the global talent shortage issue in my article Securing Talent to Connect, Collaborate and Innovate. As an industry veteran I knew that the decades-long workforce development challenge will only worsen with the proliferation and increasing complexity of technology.Innovation has never been more technology-intensive. Developing the technology and producing the components required for applications powering next-generation communications (5G), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, autonomous vehicles, and the Internet of Things (IoT) require bright minds in diverse fields of science to fill critical positions in the global electronics manufacturing industry. Today, that talent struggle is acute, threatening to undermine our industry’s potential to grow to $1 trillion by 2030.The electronics industry needs a comprehensive, integrated program to build the talent pipeline. The program should inspire school-age children to adult learners to pursue careers in this great but underrecognized industry. It needs to shine a spotlight on career opportunities. It must prepare workers with standardized skills sets transferable across the industry. And it must connect trained workers with hiring companies.SEMI is uniquely positioned to deliver this solution. Launched almost two years to the day after I joined SEMI, SEMI Works is SEMI’s branded workforce development initiative. We realize that trade associations don’t create jobs. Their members do. Think of SEMI Works as SEMI’s commitment to build and maintain the needed infrastructure – the talent pipeline. SEMI Works is comprehensive. The program, supported by SEMI members, is a wide-ranging effort by our Global Advocacy team to ensure education is demand-driven, training programs better meet the needs of the industry, more people pursue careers in electronics and our members have access to the talent pool that we are cultivating. With SEMI Works, SEMI is developing scalable solutions to improve connections among training and education providers, prospective workers and the industry. Key features of SEMI Works will include SEMI-certified education courses and training programs linked to industry requirements and skills credentialing for workers.SEMI Works starts with raising awareness of SEMI-certified programs as a key bridge connecting prospective talent, the industry and applicable training and education programs. Growing awareness of the programs will enable SEMI to build an extensive database of employers and qualified talent and link both to the right training. SEMI will continue to drive and endorse programs that help meet member needs throughout the education continuum – from K-4 to higher education and adult training. But the infrastructure and ecosystem required to support and scale these programs is the key for all of us to win together. At a high level, SEMI Works consists of several important components: Linking the required industry competencies to education and training course curriculum – Similar to the establishment of SEMI standards, SEMI will certify education and training programs that dovetail with the industry competency model. Initial certification and annual re-certification ensure continued updates, relevance and sustainability of the programs. SEMI will raise awareness of SEMI Works certified programs as the standard for meeting the industry’s talent requirements. Developing and maintaining the electronics industry competency model – Through established working groups and ongoing dialogue with our members, we are developing a competency model – a tiered matrix of required competencies used to link course curriculum to the talent needs of employers. The competency model consists of interpersonal and individual skills, academic and general industry requirements, advanced manufacturing competencies, and competencies by job. SEMI will establish and maintain the model with regular updates. Improving access to talent – Through SEMI Works, SEMI will build an extensive database that brings together programs, talent and employers. People and organizations opting into a SEMI-certified program or acquiring a SEMI program certification will be part of the SEMI database. Job seekers will be able to set up a profile and resume and search for training and employment opportunities, and employers will search the talent pool – much as job-search sites work today – assured of a skills match based on the SEMI certification. I am passionate about education and proud of all of SEMI’s efforts. I am especially proud of the work we are doing to help provide a pathway to meaningful careers for children and adults all around the world. We no longer have the luxury of a piecemeal approach to training and education.It is my hope and belief that SEMI Works, together with our efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the workforce, will be SEMI’s lasting mark on the global electronics industry.Ajit Manocha is president and CEO of SEMI.

SEMI is excited to recognize Katie Maloney of Edwards Vacuum as the SEMI Spotlight on Women Honoree for Q1 2019!Spotlight on SEMI Women celebrates the many accomplished women who work in the global microelectronics industry. Nominees in the quarterly spotlight include women who are beacons of knowledge, leaders of organizations and initiatives, hidden heroes and innovators in our industry. They are volunteers, protectors, intellectual disruptors and activists. Learn how you can nominate a woman for Spotlight on SEMI Women.With nearly 20 years in the microelectronics industry, Katie Maloney has always been a leader and agent of change. She launched her career pathway as a student at the University of Notre Dame on an ROTC scholarship. Her passion for science and technology led to a degree in aerospace engineering. After graduation, Katie began her military commission in the United States Navy as a Division Officer and Command Training Manager within the Nuclear Engineering school. Katie ultimately decided she wanted to manage people while continuing to focus on technology as a fundamental aspect of her career. Driven by a vision for her future, Katie worked full-time and attended the University of Central Florida, earning a master’s degree in engineering management. Katie’s leadership continued to shine despite her workload, and during Katie’s commission the U.S. Navy recognized her for multiple accomplishments. Most notably Katie was awarded “Instructor of the Year” for her classroom teaching.Katie’s journey at Edwards Vacuum began 10 years ago as a site manager for its largest customer. Through her strong leadership skills, Katie has made a difference at Edwards Vacuum, exemplified the semiconductor industry skill set, and helped customers meet their goals. The Edwards executive management team has recognized Katie’s creative thinking. After her recent promotion to business line manager responsible for a Global Account team, Katie put her ideas and leadership to work by mobilizing her team to drive significant improvements in EUV development, contract management and team building at Edwards. Katie’s military experience shaped her career, a formative influence that inspired her passion early on to support military veterans by helping them transition from military to civilian life. She understands the valuable skillsets veterans bring to the microelectronics industry and she dedicates time to help them understand how their skills can translate into opportunities.Cristina Sandoval is manager of Workforce Development at SEMI.

Spotlight on SEMI Women is excited to recognize Q4 2018 honoree Ellie Yieh from Applied Materials!Spotlight on SEMI Women recognizes and celebrates accomplished women working in the global microelectronics industry. Nominees include women who are beacons of knowledge, leaders of organizations and initiatives, hidden heroes and innovators in our industry. They are volunteers, protectors, intellectual disruptors and activists. SEMI’s Diversity Inclusion Board works with our member companies to shine a spotlight on these amazing women. Learn how you can nominate a woman for Spotlight on SEMI Women.Ellie Yieh has been a trailblazer at Applied Materials since she began her career with Applied in 1989 as a process engineer in the Chemical Vapor Deposition group. Ellie’s contributions have made a lasting impact on the business and she continues her path of innovation as corporate vice president for Advanced Product Technology Development. Ellie is responsible for the company’s state-of-the-art Maydan Technology Center and works closely with customers and business units to drive advanced product development and technology roadmaps. In addition, Ellie leads R D for developing new memory and logic innovations that will drive future business opportunities for Applied. In 2018 she was named an Applied Materials Fellow, the company’s highest honor for outstanding technical achievement. She is also a board member of Applied Ventures, LLC, the company’s venture capital arm.During her 30 years at Applied, she has led the development of several successful products and enabled her teams to deliver growth in profitability and market share, while building strong customer relationships and developing innovative technologies. Of note is Ellie’s leadership in developing industry-leading Gapfill technologies to address the increasingly important shallow trench isolation and inter-layer dielectric applications for denser pitches. Further, Ellie spearheaded the adoption of Applied’s low-k Producer® Black Diamond® system, helping to develop and introduce a robust, low-k film that could withstand both the newly adopted copper back end-of-line and packaging integration challenges.st honor for outstanding technical achievement. She is also a board member of Applied Ventures, LLC, the company’s venture capital arm.Ellie’s journey in technology began when she immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan at the age of 15 with her family. She quickly stood out due to her stellar academic performance in math and science. Her academic excellence landed her at UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry. Ellie’s adaptability as an Asian female became crucial as she navigated a field dominated by male engineers. She received a B.S. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley and now holds more than 100 semiconductor engineering patents. In 2016 she was inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to the scientific and technological communities. She was also named one of the 2015 “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology” by the National Diversity Council.Ellie has also been spending time championing for woman engineers. She is a member of the advisory boards for UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and the Silicon Valley Women in Engineering group at San Jose State University.Ellie finds working in the semiconductor industry rewarding because “the technical challenges come like clockwork so we are always on our toes working on the next problem and the next solution. I enjoy each of the challenges to put the puzzle together. It’s a team sport; we are all dependent on each other to win and when we look at a problem I am just another engineer on the team trying to solve the problem. But I am also responsible for setting higher level direction for priorities, objectives and vision. It has been very fun for me and I love what I do.”Cristina Sandoval is manager of Workforce Development at SEMI.

SEMI has launched a mentoring program that pairs seasoned industry professionals with university students and professionals wanting to advance their careers. The program is designed to help tackle the semiconductor industry’s workforce shortfall and prepare the next generation of innovators. Under the program, SEMI members with years of professional experience share their knowledge with developing talent and help build their professional networks as they embark on their careers in the microelectronics industry.As the microelectronics manufacturing industry faces increasing challenges in recruiting, training and retaining a diverse pool of highly skilled talent to sustain the remarkable pace of innovation globally, SEMI has made workforce development a top strategic priority. Globally, the industry is confronted with more than 10,000 job vacancies.To help build the workforce of the future, SEMI has rolled out industry-wide programs to address a chief reason for the workforce shortage – increasing competition from other technology sectors. The initiatives include enhancing industry awareness of the industry’s critical need for talent, increasing the representation of women, and supporting young professionals and university students soon to be making important career decisions. The new SEMI Mentoring Program builds on those initiatives by guiding the next generation of innovators.With mentoring a proven method to develop talent, SEMI has contracted with Chronus – an experienced provider of a software mentoring platform tailored to support the SEMI Mentoring Program.SEMI Mentoring Program: Roles and Responsibilities This is a formal relationship in which mentors guide mentees in their professional development. The mentor will answer questions and take a personal interest in, guide, encourage, and support the mentee. The mentor will meeting monthly with the mentee and follow up as needed. The mentee will set up the first meeting to discuss professional goals, topics he or she would like to cover and timing for subsequent. Both mentor and mentee will commit to remain connected for at least six months. Frequently Asked Questions Q: How are meetings conducted?A: Mentors and mentees can meet face-to-face or virtually, but should meet for a minimum of one hour once a month for six months.Q: How are goals set?A: The mentor and the mentee agree on goals during their first meeting. The mentee is responsible for arranging meetings, preparing the agendas, and any other pre-meeting work. This will ensure that the discussions touch on the topics that matter most to the mentees.Q: What happens once the six months are up?A: You can continue an unofficial relationship if both parties agree, or you can search for a new mentor or mentee by reapplying through your mentor profile.Q: What is SEMI’s role?A: SEMI is here to help match you based off your preferences, facilitate the relationship, provide materials to guide your experience, and help resolve any program or platform related issues.Q: What are the program eligibility requirements for mentors?A: A mentor must be an employee of a SEMI member organization with a minimum of five years’ professional experience to mentor a university student, or seven years’ professional experience to mentor a developing professional.Q: What are program eligibility requirements for mentees?A: Developing Professional Program Developing professional, 0-7 years in their career Employed by a SEMI member organization University Program At minimum, a rising junior enrolled in a university program (students through PhD level accepted) Completing a STEM major Within 6 months of graduation if currently out of school and seeking employment Preferred: Interest in the microelectronics industry Q: Why be a mentee?A: Learn from an experienced industry professional and accelerate your professional development.Q: Why be a mentor?A: Being a mentor will allow you to grow as a leader while giving you the rewarding experience of guiding someone’s growth path firsthand. Join us in shaping the future of our industry by becoming a mentor or mentee. Sign up here! For more information about the program, please contact Cristina Sandoval, manager of Workforce Development, at [email protected].

Standing-room only keynote speeches. A future awash in data amassed by transformative technologies and applications, with semiconductors at their core. Smart everything: Cars, medicine, manufacturing, workforce, you name it. The sheer numbers impressed as a record lineup of SEMICON West keynote speakers offered a glowing portrait of the future: The semiconductor industry stands on the cusp of a breakout expansion. Standing and seated shoulder-to-shoulder in the packed-to-gills opening keynote, the audience learned, indeed, that the best was yet to come: “This is the best SEMICON West, ever,” observed SEMI CEO Ajit Manocha. Here’s a glimpse of the keynotes by the numbers, starting with the luckiest of all. 7 – The number of keynotes – among the brightest lights in technology – sharing their visions of the future through the lens of breakthrough technologies that are nearly ready to make their indelible mark. Dozens of expert panelists also weighed in at SEMICON West, the annual U.S. flagship microelectronics gathering in San Francisco. 90 – The percentage of all data ever generated has been created in just the past two years as the cloud mushrooms with tweets, texts, emails, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, medical records and all manner of business information, noted Bill Bottoms, president and CEO of Third Millennium Test Solutions. In the years ahead, an almost unimaginable wealth of data will require analysis by artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in semiconductors to enable applications that go well beyond smart. 12-18 – That’s how many months it will take for data volume to double, predicted John Kelly III, IBM’s Senior VP, Cognitive Solutions. And it will double again and again, every 12-18 months. Kelly foresees a scale of growth “that will dwarf previous eras of computing … the number of opportunities is enormous.” Kelly’s four decades in computing gave considerable weight to his point that “in the industry, there has never been a more exciting point in time than today.” First – Technology is being re-born. Using baseball lingo, several speakers noted that we are just in “the first inning,” “the top half of the first inning” or “the beginning of the first inning” to make clear in the most emphatic terms the duration of prosperity that lies ahead for the industry. AI embedded in chips and demand for real-time analysis of AI data will be its fuel. As SEMI Americas president Dave Anderson observed with a smile, “We all know how long baseball games can go.” Third – That’s the current wave of machine learning the world is now experiencing, according to Sandia National Laboratories’ Principal Member Conrad James. Computers are now capable of solving many increasingly complex problems on their own, with no human intervention necessarily required, he said. 1000x – As spectacularly fast as computing power already is today, the industry will need to double that the rate of performance in the years ahead, predicted Applied Materials president and CEO Gary Dickerson. Demand for this herculean processing capacity will spur a “tremendous focus on innovation” among SEMI members, their customers and their customers’ customers. 5 to 15 – The remarkable amount of silicon that power today’s mobile devices will be overshadowed by the chips – equivalent in computing capacity to 5 to 15 cell phones – that will be the engine of self-driving and other features in future automobiles, predicted Pierre Ferragu, New Street Research Managing Partner, during the SEMI Bulls and Bears session. Automobiles with this souped-up computing capacity will sell in the millions worldwide in the years ahead, generating never-before-seen opportunities for the chip industry, he noted. 10,000 – It’s not just cars. Ten thousand is the number of sensors that will be built just into the wings of new Airbus A380-1000 aircraft, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster explained during his keynote. 10 terabits – The staggering amount of Facebook data uploaded daily in to the cloud, Papermaster noted. 1 Trillion – SEMI’s 2020 forecast that the industry will reach $500 billion in revenues by 2020 was eclipsed by one analyst, speaking at the SEMI Market Symposium on the first day of the event, predicted that the industry would top $1 trillion in the foreseeable future. SEMI’s Manocha later added that $1 trillion in industry revenue is possible by 2030, “maybe sooner.” 1 (sexy) coda – Coders are hip and software applications are the apple of the world’s eye. Even the most casual mobile device user knows that software apps makes it whirl. But “hardware is becoming sexy again,” said Applied Materials’ Dickerson, adding that equipment and other semiconductor hardware developed by SEMI members will enable the next great wave of global economic growth. Scott Stevens, SEMI

Enjoying the richest lineup of talent and resources in SEMI history, West isn’t just a show anymoreIt’s a powerful conversation. With new venues, new voices, and new takes on the industries and markets that will fuel the industry’s growth, SEMICON West is adding more value and taking a fresh approach to event experiences.Arrive smart, advance to “beyond smart.” That’s AI we’re talking about, and you’ll see demos on how it’ll enhance every one of our established and emerging markets. TechXPOT pavilions will be ground zero for discussing the freshest perspectives about autonomous and connected transportation and smart manufacturing. Designed exclusively to increase your expertise in the most promising areas for the next five years of industry growth, the featured interactions will center around innovations for improving data sharing across the global supply chain.Meet the experts. They’ll be waiting for you at the Meet the Experts Theater in the Smart Manufacturing and Smart Transportation Pavilions located on the show floor. Placed specifically for your easy access, the experts represent the top of their fields in emerging IC technologies for leveraging connected intelligence in electronics manufacturing. They’ll drive conversations about the hottest areas of growth opportunity and how to crack the challenges facing the industry. They look forward to the specifics that you want to explore. “Workforce development” has become a rallying cry. Coming off a banner year, the chip business is mounting an unprecedented recruitment drive to attract the best talent. The results are vital for the next state-of-the-art tech roadmaps that rely on the most intelligent minds. To help accelerate learning curves, the Smart Workforce Pavilion welcomes college students and recent grads to see the engineering pros discuss what it’s like to work in the microelectronics industry, and to gain an understanding about what technologies will be driving the future.As an engineer and executive, I’ve attended SEMICON West for 25 years – this year’s event raises to another level the value of content and networking for all. Let’s talk at the show. We want to hear your ideas about how we move beyond smart to even higher growth and innovation.Register today for an Expo Pass to tour the exhibition floor and gain access to the Smart Pavilions and Meet the Experts Theaters. Or choose the Thought Leadership or All-in Pass to receive access to the TechXPOT presentations and more. To view all conference pass benefits, visit www.semiconwest.org/pricing.Great products start with semiconductors. Conversations make them happen.

2017 was a record-breaking year for the semiconductor industry. At SEMI, our aim is to help our members continue that momentum. To accomplish this goal, we need to encourage thousands more engineers, technologists and innovators to join our exciting industry.SEMI president and CEO Ajit Manocha has stated, “Attracting new candidates to build a global workforce is critical to sustaining the pace of innovation. If we don’t act together, we’ll limit our growth.”To meet the challenge, SEMI recently launched a workforce development initiative, a key pillar of SEMI goals to support our member companies. The showcase for meeting this challenge is the first-ever Smart Workforce Pavilion—an innovative talent recruitment venue making its premier at SEMICON West 2018 in July. The Pavilion represents a unique opportunity for SEMI member companies to get involved in an initiative that is critically important to our industry’s future success. The Smart Workforce Pavilion will connect a diverse audience of promising, entry-level prospects with SEMI member talent acquisition and human resources (HR) recruiting teams. The Smart Workforce Pavilion offers a variety of ways to engage with college students seeking to enter our industry’s Smart Workforce. Members who engage at the higher levels will have an opportunity to:connect a diverse audience of promising, entry-level prospects with SEMI member talent acquisition and human resources (HR) recruiting teams. Staff a booth within the Pavilion, where your HR representatives can informally meet with entry-level prospects to review resumes, conduct informational interviews, or even begin the application process. List some of your company’s open, entry-level positions on the onsite job board. Sign up to learn more about participation in a formal mentoring program. Provide your company literature and recruitment materials within a college student resource kit. Deliver motivational “day-in-the-life” presentations on how to pursue a career in the industry and why your company is the place to begin.* The Smart Workforce Pavilion promises to be a major draw at SEMICON West 2018. Join this effort and bring your voice to celebrate our industry as you seek new talent for your company. Start today! Contact Shane Poblete at +1.202.847.5983 or [email protected] *Featured benefit listed is only available to the highest-level participants.