Inside ‘Upwards’ at RIT; an international semiconductor education exchange program

HENRIETTA, N.Y. (WROC) — Since the passage of the federal CHIPS Act, New York has seen significant investment in the semiconductor industry from a recent $40 million into the 1-90 Semiconductor Highway to Micron’s future mega-fab near Syracuse.

But this infrastructure needs workers, and an international exchange program between the US and Japan — started at the G7 Summit in 2023 — called “Upwards” looks to address the global need.

Locally, Micron’s mega fab plans to hire 9,000 workers, all of kinds.

“They need technicians, engineers, scientists, all the way from high school education, all the way up through PhD degrees,” said Karl Hirschman of RIT. He’s the Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering and Director of Microelectronic Engineering at RIT.

Upwards is funded by Micron and the National Science Foundation. Six US universities, including RIT, and five Japanese universities are participating.

In this two-week intensive, students and faculty from Kyushu and Nagoya Universities attend lectures at RIT, and get an inside look into RIT’s hands-on, workforce development approach.

“Japan is a leading country in the world in semiconductor technology,” says Jing Zhang, Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering. “If we could get feedback from them, on how to shape our own educational program better… It’s a win-win situation.”

The faculty of the universities in Japan said the access to the companies funding this program has been vital, and it’s a chance for their students to grow as well.

“It’s good for them to experience what other students are studying in another field, because now we are in a place where we need to do cross-disciplinary research,” said Emanuel Leleito, a professor of architecture engineering at Nagoya University.

All told, RIT, Kyushu, and Nagoya Universities believe this program will help talented people fill these spots around the globe.

“We’re trying to target the undergraduate and graduate degree programs, get the students excited about the technology, and perhaps some of the studies in the upwards program, might end up coming to RIT,” said Hirschman.

The technology isn’t the only part to get excited about: these are high-paying jobs. RIT says that a graduate of their semiconductor program can expect to make around $80,000 in their first job.

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