IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Fall 2023 - 5

PRESIDENT'S CORNER
John R. Long
A Foundation for the Future
T
The Chips Act in the United States
is being hailed as a " foundation for
the future. " Of course, federal and
state governments in the United
States are not alone in their enthusiasm
for advanced chip-making
technologies. Similar programs in
Europe and Asia are already up and
running. IEEE is considering ways
of stimulating workforce development
in the semiconductor sector,
which is in the interests of IEEE
members around the globe. To succeed,
refresh and renewal of the IC
design and the engineering workforce
should accompany increased
investments in semiconductors.
Chip design companies are already
starving for employees. Where will
these people come from?
Training IC designers faces
intense competition from computer
science and white-hot applications
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2023.3315889
Date of current version: 14 November 2023
like artificial intelligence. Obviously,
we need to define ourselves so
that others recognize what designers
really do. Despite the success of
the " Intel inside " sticker campaign
on personal computers and laptops,
most folks outside of the engineering
and science community don't actually
see the hardware inside when
they encounter the latest gadget running
a new (software) application.
Initiatives like the Chips Act help by
profiling the importance of semiconductors,
and certainly industry has a
prominent role to play. However, we
also need to promote hardware as a
first-choice career path for students,
or we'll continue to lose fresh talent
to other fields.
Aside from " invisibility, " there
are deeper structural challenges to
growing the workforce. Surprisingly,
many high-school students studying
science in my home region (Ontario,
Canada, IEEE Region 7) are not
prepared to enroll in an engineer100,000
Grade
10
Academic Science
Students
25,000
Grade 12
Students Prepared
for Engineering
ing program at graduation. Recent
studies revealed that it's physics,
not mathematics, which sees a huge
drop in student interest during the
high-school years, especially from
females. In fact, of all of the science
courses offered in high school, physics
is the least popular in Ontario.
There is a 70% drop in males studying
physics from " grade 10 academic
science " (a required course) to the
senior-year of high school (first two
sections from the pipeline graphic of
Figure 1). Even worse is the 85% drop
in female students across the same
range, shown by the diminishing female-to-male
ratio below each section
of pipe. Since a credit in senior-year
physics is required to enter first-year
engineering in Canada, this has serious
implications for the engineering
talent pipeline. Compounding the
problem for electrical engineering
programs: many teachers avoid
(continued on p. 19)
9,000
First Year
Engineering
Students
32:68
50:50
IC Design Graduates
10,000
SSCS
Members
7:93
FIGURE 1: The engineering pipeline in Ontario (IEEE-R7, data from pre-COVID pandemic). Ratios are the percentage of women (red) and men
(blue). SSCS: IEEE Solid-States Circuit Society.
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
FALL 2023
5
20:80
6,600
Engineering
Graduates
20:80
2,500
MA.Sc.
Graduates
21:79
500
Ph.D.
Graduates
21:79

IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Fall 2023

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