UCSD - University of California - San Diego

10/28/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/28/2026 08:02

UC San Diego Partners with TSMC to Create Pipeline From the Classroom to Semiconductor Cleanroom

Published Date

October 28, 2026

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The University of California San Diego is partnering with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's leading chip manufacturer, to launch a program that will give undergraduate students hands-on experience with the equipment and processes used to make computer chips. The program will also provide students with training and mentorship on project development from UC San Diego engineering faculty and a pathway to apply for internships with TSMC Arizona.

The program is led by the Center for Memory and Recording Research (CMRR) at UC San Diego. It is coordinated by Oscar Vazquez-Mena, professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, in collaboration with chemistry professor Andrew Kummel and electrical and computer engineering professors Yu-Hwa Lo and Eric Fullerton, the Endowed Chair Professor of CMRR. The program aims to prepare UC San Diego undergraduate students across several fields - including chemical engineering, chemistry, mechanical engineering and nano engineering - for careers in the semiconductor industry.

"This program will enable us to introduce more students to career opportunities they might not have originally considered," Vazquez-Mena said. "Many students often associate a career in the semiconductor industry with a background in electrical engineering. But the industry, especially in manufacturing, is also heavily dependent on people who are skilled in chemistry and electromechanical systems, who can manage chemical and fabrication processes, maintain complex machinery and oversee the equipment and systems of a foundry. All these different skills are critical in running the facilities where chips are made."

The program begins amidst fall quarter 2026 with a bootcamp, in which 40 students will learn basic semiconductor fabrication techniques using less expensive tabletop versions of cleanroom instruments. "This gives students a chance to experiment and learn without stressing about making mistakes on more complex and costly equipment," Vazquez-Mena said.

Based on their performance with hands-on experiments, 25 students will be selected to advance to specialized training for the rest of the quarter in the Nano3 Cleanroom Facility, which is housed at UC San Diego's Qualcomm Institute. Cleanroom staff will train these students to operate key equipment and become authorized cleanroom users.

That training is designed to prepare students to contribute to faculty-led projects from January through June. Under the guidance of faculty mentors from the Jacobs School of Engineering, students will work on semiconductor processing projects that closely match the manufacturing activities carried out at TSMC. The projects will be related to advanced topics such as 3D electronics, photonics circuits, neuromorphic devices, electronic integration of 2D nanomaterials, and superconductive structures for quantum circuits.

Once the program ends in June, the next stage will involve an internship where students will apply the skills and concepts that they have learned in a state-of-the-art industrial semiconductor foundry at TSMC Arizona.

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