Fast Company editors ranked Purdue University No. 16 on our 2023 Most Innovative Companies list for solving a national problem: a shortage of semiconductor engineers. Last year, Purdue launched an undergraduate and graduate-level Semiconductor Degree Program designed to address this scarcity by training more engineers. As part of the Fast Company Most Innovative Companies Summit, staff writer Pavithra Mohan spoke with Purdue’s new president, Mung Chiang, about the development of the program and how the university is helping more first-generation and minority students access higher education.
“These semiconductor products are the foundation of our national security, economic security, and job security across many digital economy industries,” says Chiang, a former science and technology adviser to the Secretary of State. “After tens of billions of tax dollars and hundreds of billions of private sector investments are announced, one wonders, where do you find the workforce? By one estimate, we’re going to need 50,000 more semiconductor-related engineers in our country this decade alone.”
The interdisciplinary degree—the first of its kind—is offered online and on-campus and cut across disciplines including science, engineering, and business. Purdue has also partnered with the Ivy Tech network of community colleges to provide related associate degrees. Additionally, more than 20 executives from chip companies sit on an advisory board and helped develop a curriculum that will eventually help them recruit future employees. Purdue also plans to open a chip design center for Taiwan-based company MediaTek on its Indiana campus, and U.S. semiconductor maker SkyWater Technology plans to build a $1.8 billion manufacturing facility nearby.
Purdue has also been a pioneer in providing affordable and accessible education. In 2012, the university froze tuition prices, in part to welcome more first-generation and minority students on campus. “We have demonstrated to the whole country that it is possible to grow bigger, and hold the cost of higher learning down while keeping the quality up,” Chiang says.
To generate financial resources while continuing the tuition freeze, Chiang says that the company has taken advantage of intellectual property licensing, startup creation, and online learning. These initiatives ultimately helped increase enrollment at the 154-year-old school by nearly 30% over the past ten years.
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