University researchers with groundbreaking ideas in semiconductors, microelectronics or advanced materials are invited to apply for an entrepreneurship-focused hybrid course offered through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program.

The free virtual course runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, with an opportunity for an in-person immersion experience at SEMICON West, North America’s premier microelectronics conference, in Phoenix, Arizona, Oct. 7-9. Interested individuals can .

Hosted by Syracuse University and the University of Rochester as part of the Interior Northeast I-Corps Hub (IN I-Corps), this NSF-sponsored course is open to faculty, postdocs, Ph.D. and master’s students, undergraduates and community-based startups working on semiconductor-related technologies with commercial potential. Syracuse’s NSF I-Corps program is a partnership between , �����Ի���.

Teams selected to participate may receive up to $5,000 in travel reimbursement, enabling participants to conduct in-person customer discovery interviews and attend specialized workshops during SEMICON West. Participation in this conference provides unmatched exposure to global industry leaders, cutting-edge technologies and potential collaborators or customers. Conference attendees include executives, engineers, startups and policy leaders shaping the future of chips.

The course provides hands-on entrepreneurship training and one-on-one coaching tailored to researchers working in far-reaching sectors, from advanced lithography and transistor miniaturization to artificial intelligence hardware and high-power materials. The course emphasizes emerging areas critical to the next generation of semiconductor innovation. Applications can range from 3D integrated circuits, system-on-chip integration and computing chips that mimic the human brain’s neural architecture for tasks like pattern recognition, learning and sensory processing. Big data and machine learning innovations are of interest, as well as conventional semiconductor design and manufacturing applications.

The course is of benefit to anyone interested in being part of the research, design, commercialization and supply chain associated with these industries.

Visit the to read the full story.

Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer today announced that has been reappointed to a five-year term as dean of the . Today’s announcement follows a comprehensive review process that includes feedback from key stakeholders, including ECS faculty, staff and advisory board members.

“In Cole’s nearly five years as dean, the College of Engineering and Computer Science has grown stronger on multiple counts and made great strides towards reaching a new level of excellence,” Provost Ritter says. “This is an exciting time for the college, and I can think of no better leader to shepherd the students, faculty, staff and alumni into this new era.”

Smith assumed leadership of ECS in October 2019. His tenure has been marked by several high points for the college. A massive renovation, which included multiple new lab spaces and the Allyn Innovation Center, served to modernize ECS buildings and facilities. The pending new Campos Student Center, supported by a recent $2 million gift that Smith helped secure, will further enhance the college’s physical space.

Smith oversaw the development of the new Syracuse University Center for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, an interdisciplinary center that brings together expertise in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, manufacturing processes, optimization and robotics to advance the science of semiconductor manufacturing. He also helped launch a new master’s degree program in , as well as the .

Under Smith’s leadership, ECS research expenditures grew by 30% during the 2022-2023 academic year over 2019 levels. Enrollment, faculty size and staff size are also on track to grow by 50% in the next four years as part of a plan Smith developed. He also helped guide the college toward .

“Engineering and Computer Science is driving regional, national and international growth in areas such as advanced manufacturing, sustainable infrastructure, healthcare engineering, advanced computing technologies and materials science,” Smith says. “I have never been a part of a more exciting moment at the nexus of college, University, city and national growth. What we are doing here matters and will resonate for decades to come, and it is a true privilege to have the opportunity to realize the transformational opportunity that awaits Syracuse University and the College of Engineering and Computer Science.”

Smith came to Syracuse from Clemson University, where he held positions as associate provost for academic initiatives and chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering. His research focuses on integer programming and combinatorial optimization, network flows and facility location, computational optimization methods and large-scale optimization due to uncertainty or robustness considerations. In 2023, he was .

The development of a new pathway program for community college students interested in engineering recently got a boost from a $100,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) planning grant.

The pathway program, “Roadmap Into Syracuse Engineering Undergraduate Programs and the Profession” (“RISEUP²”), aims to attract academically talented, low-income students from Central New York who historically have been excluded from those types of careers, including adult learners, first-generation students, traditionally under-represented minorities, veterans and students with high levels of financial need.

The grant also allows a multi-school project team to plan for and prepare to submit a later for NSF funding that would provide student scholarships for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies.

That step recognizes the need to educate, grow and retain a diverse and highly skilled STEM workforce in the Central New York region, a realization catalyzed by of plans to build a $100 billion megafab semiconductor manufacturing facility in the region and New York State’s subsequent in community and workforce development, says , Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence and chair of biomedical and chemical engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS), who is the project’s principal investigator.

“This is a really exciting opportunity for ECS to envision different ways to bring students into our undergraduate program. With the growing regional and national need for engineers, we want to attract students who don’t just come to us straight out of high school. This planning grant gives us the opportunity to dig deeply into assuring that we would give those students the best opportunity to s쳮d if they come here,” Hasenwinkel says.

The NSF award funds information-gathering, program research and partnership-building efforts that the multi-school, multi-organizational project team is undertaking through spring 2025, when the Track 3 S-STEM NSF grant proposal will likely be submitted, Hasenwinkel says. That type of grant would directly fund scholarships for engineering students and underwrite the support services to help assure the academic, social and career success of RISEUP² program participants, Hasenwinkel says.

Goals for the planning phase include:

• Strengthening current connections between the University and Onondaga and Mohawk Valley Community Colleges and expanding partnerships with additional regional community colleges (potentially Jefferson, Cayuga, Tompkins Cortland and Broome Community Colleges)
• Formalizing transfer agreements with the regional community colleges to provide direct admission to Syracuse University ECS programs
• Conducting a comprehensive needs assessment across all partner institutions to determine what kinds of programming best support low-income engineering students at their two-year college, during their transition to a four-year university and throughout their time at Syracuse
• Developing formal partnerships with Micron and other area STEM employers and strengthening alliances with the Manufacturers Association of Central New York and the Technology Alliance of Central New York to solidify internship and employment opportunities
• Conducting research to better understand how a scholarship-based cohort model focused on workforce development can improve outcomes for low-income community college engineering transfer students

Project team members envision a program that offers a clear pathway to a bachelor’s degree within a “360-degree” system of student support. Beginning in the earliest years of college, it would offer ongoing guidance in financial aid, academic counseling, student success and educational and social programming at both the community college and University campuses. It would also offer living-learning residency opportunities, summer internships, professional development training and ultimately, job placement assistance.

Working with Hasenwinkel are co-principal investigators , professor of mathematics at ; , associate professor of higher education in the ; , dean of the School of STEM Transfer and associate professor at ; and , dean of the at Syracuse. Other ECS faculty and staff in admissions, recruitment and enrollment, student success and inclusive excellence are also part of the process, as are their counterparts at the community colleges.

Though the team fully plans to proceed with a Track 3 S-STEM proposal, this year’s planning activity and research will be useful in and of itself, creating knowledge and new information regarding the group of students the proposal aims to help, Hasenwinkel says.

“We’ll also be learning as we go, and we’ll be able to contribute to the educational literature on the most effective practices for supporting this population of students.”