Clearinghouse for undergraduate microelectronics education: what have we learned?

The Massachusetts Microelectronics Center (M²C), with support from the National Science Foundation, has established the Clearinghouse for Undergraduate Microelectronics Education (CUME) to support VLSI education programs at universities throughout the United States. The primary objective of CUME has been to increase the number of microelectronics education programs in the United States via a rapid start-up or bootstrap method. One year into the program, 20 universities have joined, and M²C has identified several important trends in VLSI education as well as issues related to providing multi-platform software support to remote sites. The authors discuss those trends and issues, making some recommendations for future national programs with an emphasis on shared resources and cooperation with industry