Semiconductor and Microelectronics Pathways for Learning (SAM-PL)

The semiconductor and microelectronics industries are crucial to ensuring technological and industrial competitiveness and national security, serving as key enablers for and components of future industries that will define the United States' place in the world economy. These industries make the microchips that power nearly every electronic device and technology in modern life, from smartphones and laptops to artificial intelligence and quantum sensing. Keeping up with the growing demand for powerful microchips requires a knowledgeable and plentiful workforce that designs and fabricates them. There is need to raise awareness and increase pathways into these industries. Studies show that learning does not just happen in traditional classroom environments. In fact, people spend considerable time engaged in learning STEM outside of formal educational settings, such as watching films, listening to podcasts, visiting museums, etc. Informal venues like museums, science centers, community centers, libraries, and planetariums provide a wealth of learning opportunities for learners of all ages. Informal learning is driven by choice and empowers individuals to take control of their own discoveries. It allows learners of all ages to explore their interests and learn at their own pace in environments that are engaging and fun. These settings lend particularly well to STEM learning and scientific discovery, as they are driven by choice and help spark excitement and intrinsic motivation in STEM topics. The Computing Research Association (CRA), in collaboration with Knowinnovation, will host two Ideas Lab workshops with the goal of expanding the future semiconductor and microelectronics workforce through innovative, engaging, and transformative informal learning experiences that will broaden pathways into these fields. The Ideas Lab is an interactive, multidisciplinary, and highly intensive workshop that is designed to foster the development of novel and transformative solutions to significant scientific challenges. The Ideas Lab will encourage multidisciplinary collaboration, innovative thinking, and unconventional approaches by bringing together a mixed group of experts, including semiconductor and microelectronics researchers and scientists, engineers and computer scientists, educators from across the informal STEM education field, and leaders from industry. This group of individuals will design engaging, innovative, and transformative informal learning experiences that will expand pathways into the semiconductor and microelectronics fields, contributing to the strength of the future semiconductor and microelectronics workforce. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.