• Hudson Valley Community College

Troy, NY

• Analyzes and identifies the technical skill sets needed to develop and maintain high-tech industries in the Northeast.
• Enhances, develops, and expands 2-year nanoscale science, engineering, and semiconductor technology curricula and delivery methodologies to ensure student success.
• Augments educators’ skills to teach NEATEC’s advanced technology curricula.
• Establishes experiential learning opportunities for both students and teachers with industrial and university partners.
• Educates the general public about nanotechnology and semiconductor technology.
• Enables individuals from populations underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to pursue educational opportunities that lead to technological careers.

NEATEC Offers Paths to Nanotechnology & Nanoelectronics Manufacturing Careers

NEATEC has assembled extraordinary opportunities for community college and secondary school students to engage in cutting-edge nanotechnology and nanoelectronics education programs. The center provides students with hands-on learning opportunities in semiconductors and photovoltaics (PV) at Hudson Valley Community College’s (HVCC’s) TEC-SMART facility. It also offers internships and cooperative learning opportunities at the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s (CNSE) NanoTech Complex. Learning and working in the 300mm Wafer NanoFab facility within the complex will add to students’ technical qualifications and career preparation.

Outreach programs for students and educators at NEATEC community colleges and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) allow students to explore careers in a variety of nanotech fields through associate degree programs. HVCC’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Technician (SMT) program and NEATEC’s capstone semester at CNSE’s NanoFab facility directly feed the resurgent nanotechnology manufacturing sector.

New Center Makes Immediate Workforce Impact

In its inaugural year, NEATEC assembled key capabilities for direct and immediate impact on the nanotech and nanoelectronics workforce in New York and Western New England. Through HVCC’s TEC-SMART facility, NEATEC has access to a teaching cleanroom for Integrated Circuit IC lithography and device fabrication. HVCC’s infrastructure also accommodates instruction in the latest advances in PV and PV installation. NEATEC’s partnership with Fulton-Montgomery Community College gives NEATEC’s electrical technology students access to metrology equipment in that college’s new teaching cleanroom.

NEATEC has also established cooperative learning (co-ops) and internship opportunities with CNSE and its partners, including IBM and International Sematech. At CNSE’s 300mm Wafer NanoFab facility, NEATEC students have unprecedented hands-on learning opportunities. NEATEC is the first National Science Foundation ATE center to provide students with direct access to cutting-edge fabrication tools in a state-of-the-art nanoelectronics prototyping facility. The first group of students from HVCC’s SMT program began co-ops at CNSE in January 2011. HVCC had 15 students in associate degree programs in 2010-2011.

NEATEC’s development of new curricula and leveraging of existing modules for semiconductor fabrication, PV, and alternative energy technologies will substantially impact the readiness and capabilities of the nanotechnology workforce in the Northeast, given the great number of semiconductor and nanotechnology companies that are moving to the region. In addition to its host institution, NEATEC’s partners include Mohawk Valley Community College, Schenectady County Community College, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Rochester Institute of Technology, Springfield Technical College, and RPI.