Addressing the talent crunch in the semiconductor industry

More initiatives to bridge the academia-industry skill gap in the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry are needed.

One by one, four engineering students present a project based on a common theme — cost-effective power production through piezoelectric tiles. Every presentation is followed by “grilling” by senior engineers. This scene is unfolding at the office of Texas Instruments (TI) in Bengaluru, many times over, as 115 second-year female engineering students had attended a month-long hands-on programme by the company, and the training has now culminated in project presentation.

Women in Semiconductors and Hardware (WiSH), as the programme is called, had many aspirants — over 1,500 students from 43 engineering colleges across India had applied — but less than one-tenth passed muster, proving the seriousness and commitment underpinning the exercise.

“Only 27% of women who pursue STEM education in India for higher studies end up pursuing careers in these fields and we want to help change that,” says Santhosh Kumar, president and managing director, Texas Instruments India.

This programme had a gender angle to it, intentionally, but its wider focus was to bridge the academia-industry skill gap in the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry.

The collaboration between Applied Materials India (a big name in the semiconductor industry) and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is known. The latest edition of Philip Kotler’s India management book also dwelt on it. Applied Materials India runs a huge lab on IIT Bombay campus, through which it has sponsored over 120 projects in semiconductors, materials engineering, nanotechnology, renewable energy and bioscience.

Last year, Lam Research Corporation associated with Indian Institute of Science to support skilling of 60,000 Indian engineering students over a period of 10 years.

Similarly, Synopsys is working with many universities for talent creation in various domains.