One U.S. university's efforts to improve knowledge of semiconductors could end up helping the country's economic rivals.
Credit: Purdue University
College applicants looking for a marketable and AI-proof education could do worse this fall than apply to Purdue. The public university in West Lafayette, Indiana, is spearheading perhaps the most exciting semiconductor education initiative in America today, offering a suite of programs from associate degrees to PhDs.
The question is: Will its graduates end up contributing more to the U.S. economy or those of its major economic rivals, chief among them China?
Purdue’s program, one of the first offered at such a scale by an American university, is aimed at training students in areas from chip design to fabrication and packaging. As record investment flows towards onshoring the semiconductor industry, such programs are becoming essential: the U.S. will need at least 40,000 trained semiconductor engineers to staff the fabs and offices expected to come online in the coming years, according to estimates by the Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group
Data: White Ho
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