Purdue University and SEMI convene semiconductor partnership meeting held
Purdue University President Mung Chiang on Friday (June 23) joined top U.S. and Indian government officials and technology industry leaders in Washington, D.C., for the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-India Semiconductor Collaborative, aimed at growing the relationship between Purdue and the South Asian nation. The roundtable event, co-hosted by Purdue and SEMI, a global industry association serving the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, coincided with the first official state visit to the U.S. of Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi.
Attendees at the semiconductor collaborative’s launch event included U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana); Congressman Jim Baird (Indiana-D4); India’s Union Minister for Electronics and IT, the Honorable Ashwini Vaishnaw; Assistant Secretary of State, the Honorable Ramin Toloui; Deputy Director of NIST’s CHIPS R&D Office Eric Lin; SEMI CEO Ajit Manocha; India Semiconductor Mission CEO Amitesh Sinha; and the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, V. Kamakoti. Senior executives from leading U.S. technology companies including Micron, Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments, MediaTek, GlobalFoundries, Microsoft, Marvell, Synopsys, Cadence, NVIDIA, and others also participated in the meeting and shared their ideas and support for a strong semiconductors partnership between the two countries.
“There are opportunities of complementary and coordinated semiconductor partnership between the U.S. and India,” Chiang said. “We’re excited to bring together such a high-level collaboration of academic, government, and industry partners during Prime Minister Modi’s visit in Washington D.C., as Purdue has a special role to play in workforce as in research innovation in CHIPS.”
Manocha said, “SEMI member companies across the global semiconductor ecosystem recognize the critical importance of expanding industry workforce development programs and partnerships with academia and governments to address our talent gap and support robust growth. The collaboration between Purdue and India, with the full support of SEMI’s comprehensive workforce development program and industry connections, will contribute to the global semiconductor industry talent pipeline and the growth of the ecosystem in India.”
In May, Purdue entered into a landmark international agreement with the government of India to advance workforce development, research and development, and industry partnerships in semiconductors. With that announcement, Purdue was established as a key collaborator with India and the India Semiconductor Mission in skilled workforce development and joint research and innovation in the burgeoning fields of semiconductors and microelectronics.
“I think it sends a very strong message and is a reflection and a recognition of Purdue being not just America’s leading university in semiconductor workforce and R&D but also blazing a trail globally in terms of academic institutions putting together international partnerships,” said Vijay Raghunathan, director of semiconductor education at Purdue and a professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.