Utica Observer-Dispatch
Steve Howe
Jun 30, 2022
Some of the Mohawk Valley’s bright young minds met for a workshop on microchip design in Rome on June 28.
The event, organized by NYDesign and hosted at New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation headquarters in Griffiss Business and Technology Park, brought in local students, including those from Mohawk Valley Community College, to learn about open source software to design microchips.
While semiconductor fabrication facilities continue to locate in upstate New York, including Wolfspeed in Marcy and Global Foundries in Malta, there’s a missing component.
“The element that we don’t have a huge amount of capacity around is the design of those integrated circuits,” said Lamar Hill, executive director of NYDesign.
The research and design aspect accounts for about half of the economic value of the industry, Hill said. The workshop on June 28 included hands-on sessions with eFabless, a free chip design software that replicates more expensive programs usually only available at the graduate level.
“By participating in this workshop they’re going to be able to get access to actually putting designs onto silicon and be able to test them,” Hill said.
NYDesign also held the workshop in Troy on June 29 to reach students at universities like Rensselaer Polytechnic institute.
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