U.S.-Japan University Partnership for Workforce Advancement and Research & Development in Semiconductors (UPWARDS) for the Future

《芯片和科学法案》于2022年8月9日签署成为法律，为加速关键技术领域的进步、建设未来的STEM劳动力以及促进与私营部门的伙伴关系以实现这一进步提供了新的机遇。它提供了一个独特的历史性机会，可以扩大美国的半导体生产能力，并为美国劳动力在先进制造业和工程领域的工作做好准备。认识到熟练和多样化的工人管道对于建立可持续的半导体产业至关重要，需要政府，学术界和半导体行业之间的合作，以确保教育和研究培训计划与行业需求保持一致，并确保学生为填补关键的需求角色做好充分准备。“面向未来的美日大学半导体劳动力提升和研究开发合作计划”（往上）代表了六所美国大学和五所日本大学之间的合作，与行业合作伙伴共同努力，为学生、教师和专业人士提供先进的培训和研究机会，以满足对训练有素的微电子和半导体劳动力的需求，因此，在半导体领域建立全球和国内的能力。实现这些目标的活动包括有针对性的学生交流项目、专业认证机会、课程开发、访问教师/研究员项目，以及利用每个合作伙伴的资源和专业知识的重点研究项目。通过对培训和研究的共同承诺，合作伙伴将补充和扩大目前的努力，以扩大和支持半导体劳动力渠道。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law on August 9, 2022, envisions new opportunities in accelerating progress in key technology areas, building the STEM workforce of tomorrow, and fostering partnerships with the private sector to enable this progress. It offers a unique and historic opportunity to expand the nation’s capacity for semiconductor production as well as to prepare the U.S. workforce for jobs in advanced manufacturing and engineering. Recognizing that a skilled and diverse pipeline of workers is vital to building a sustainable semiconductor industry, collaboration between government, academia, and the semiconductor industry is needed to ensure that education and research training programs are aligned with industry needs and that students are well-prepared to fill critical, in-demand roles.The U.S.-Japan University Partnership for Workforce Advancement and Research & Development in Semiconductors (UPWARDS) for the Future represents a collaboration between six U.S. universities and five Japanese universities, working with industry partners, to provide advanced training and research opportunities to students, faculty, and professionals in an effort to address the demand for a highly trained microelectronics and semiconductor workforce and, as a result, build global and domestic capacity in the semiconductor field. Activities to achieve such goals include targeted student exchange programs, professional certification opportunities, curriculum development, visiting faculty/researcher programs, and focused research projects leveraging the resources and expertise from each partner. Through a shared commitment to training and research, partners will complement and scale current efforts to broaden and support the semiconductor workforce pipeline.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.