For years the Danish microchip industry has lacked engineers. So the joy of a stuffed auditorium filled with potential chip-design students was palpable. In general interest is soaring and after the summer break, the first students will begin on a new BSc in Computer Engineering.
Usually when talking about chip design and microchip production you think of countries in Southeast Asia. But then the world experienced a veritable chip shortage which showed a clear vulnerability in situations of crisis. This prompted the EU to restore the industry on European soil - and that requires engineers specialized in the field.
In collaboration with the manufacturers DTU Compute has recently hosted it’s second DTU Chip Day. This - very well attended - career day paired around 90 students and potential employees with the Danish chip industry, and let the students soak up information about education and job opportunities.
“The day gave me some insight into the possibilities of chip design. And it was nice hearing that the industry is crying out for more engineers, people who are considering the line of education you yourself is considering, “says Ivan Hansgaard Hansen, a fourth semester bachelor student in electro technology who is thinking about focusing on chip design for his master’s degree.
A story about technology
Even though DTU Chip Day is held at DTU the event has arisen in close collaboration with the chip industry. Peter Jensen, Managing Director in the company Syosil, is one of the initiators.
“We need more students to focus on what we are all running around and doing, which is designing microchips. In the chip design world, we started talking about this issue and decided we needed to tell the story about what you can become, what you can learn at DTU and how we are working with chip design, in the capital area, and on the other side of Øresund, where there is a large Swedish manufacturing base.”
At DTU Chip Day the companies were purposefully left standing in the background outside the auditorium while the technical stories shone on stage, for the students to relate to. During breaks the students were able to visit stands and speak with the companies.
"We have great expectations for the new education and DTU received enormous support from the industry when applying for permission to start the new bachelor’s degree. Even though we have previously established specialty courses for students in chip design we have long wanted to offer more education. This is what the new bachelor’s degree changes."
Professor at DTU Compute Martin Schoeberl.
“Last year a lot of the students contacted companies after the chip day to hear more about bachelors, master’s degrees, and internships. Funnily enough some of the courses at DTU doubled their intake within our field. The industry hopes we can benefit from this increasing interest in chip design,” says Peter Jensen.
That statement is supported by Jørgen Kragh Jakobsen, a designer of analogue circuits and owner of the one-man company IC Works - one of the organizers of DTU Chip Day.
“I am very happy with DTU Chip Day. It’s clear that many companies are excited to meet not only students but each other. We met many students, and while there were repeat customers from last year many new students attended. This is important to broaden the knowledge of chip design and the job opportunities within the field as much as possible,” says Jørgen Kragh Jakobsen.
A new bachelor’s degree solves a problem
The increased focus in the EU, and thereby also Denmark, on chip design is instrumental in the creation of a new Bachelor of Science at DTU called Computer Engineering.
Until now students with interest in chip design have typically selected the bachelor Electro Technology because this course gives students a deep understanding of physical hardware, along with analogue and digital electronics. Within this course they can select between 4-5 fields of study – but nothing that really fits chip design. That meant if they at some point thought the computer science discipline of software and the design of a CPU was more interesting, they had to look at a bachelor thesis in this boundary field.
Now DTU established an education which encompasses all the subjects of chip design. After the summer break the first 30 students will start and DTU Compute Professor and Head of Studies for the new education Martin Schoeberl is incredibly excited.
“We have great expectations for the new education and DTU received enormous support from the industry when applying for permission to start the new bachelor’s degree. Even though we have previously established specialty courses for students in chip design we have long wanted to offer more education. This is what the new bachelor’s degree changes,” says Martin Schoeberl.
Peter Jensen from the company Syosil confirms this support:
“Going back 20-30 years people could choose their own education. Today it is more structured, and this bachelor’s degree solves a problem for us. The fact that people can be admitted to an actual computer science education provides a much greater recruitment base. I also believe DTU will see that the fact that things flow together provides a much larger recruitment base for future PhDs.”
Read more about the new bachelor’s degree Computer Engineering here