TLI, Minnesota Semiconductor Consortium Celebrates First Year of Success
A man holds a certificate up as a woman projected on a large screen smiles behind him
Dr. Rama Prasad smiles on screen as the U's Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, Dr. Andrew Alleyne, presents a certificate lauding her achievements in the new series of semiconductor manufacturing courses.

"What we have accomplished in the last year is nothing short of remarkable." 

Steven Koester, director of the Minnesota Nano Center, made this declaration to representatives of the Minnesota Semiconductor Manufacturing Consortium (MSMC) gathered on the University of Minnesota campus Wednesday. The group was there to celebrate an important milestone: the graduation of the first cohort from the newly-created semiconductor manufacturing professional certificate. 

The certificate program is part of an aggressive public-private initiative to create a semiconductor manufacturing base in Minnesota, Koester explained.

"To be able to build a certificate program like this one as rapidly as we did really is amazing," Koester said in his remarks to the gathering. "We've gathered even more momentum than we originally hoped, and other industry leaders in the region have already expressed interest in signing up for the second cohort." 

Koester noted that the consortium itself had been formed only a year ago. He noted that TLI's Travis Thul did much of the ground work to get the certificate program started, and credited the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) for providing critical state funding. 

"Without their support, we would not be able to have undertake ambitious projects like this one - to expand educational opportunities for technology professionals in the state". 

Dr. Andrew Alleyne, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, lauded the accomplishments of the consortium, and noted the part that TLI, the Minnesota Nano Center and CSE faculty have played. "We are working hand-in-hand with the state's leading technology companies to build a state-of-the-art asynchronous training program that will be critical in maintaining our economic preeminence, both as a state and a nation." 

Dean Alleyne awarded certificates to key members of the team that planned and taught the curriculum, including Seth Nfonoyim-Hara, Rama Prasad, Brian Olmsted, Steven Koester, Tony Whipple, Emma Jore, Travis Thul, Wanjohi Kimani, James Marti and Laura Parmeter. 

The completion of the first cohort comes on the heels of more good news for the consortium: Polar Semiconductor was awarded a $120 million grant from the CHIPS and Science Act, which seeks to spur high-tech manufacturing in the state. 

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