Tsinghua University establishes School of Integrated Circuits
April 27, 2021 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Tsinghua University, one of China’s top universities, established the School of Integrated Circuits, the nation’s first, to target the research and training of technicians in semiconductors. The school aims to help the country resolve bottlenecks created by the U.S. restricting the export of high-tech products to China. Tsinghua University’s integrated circuits school will be the first in China to offer a specialized major in the subject. The school will focus on developing top-level research talent, and it will eventually offer Master’s degrees and PhDs, Qiu Yong, Principal of Tsinghua University, said at the school’s inauguration ceremony on April 22. The school aims to train high-level innovative technicians who are urgently needed in China to help to develop semiconductor manufacturing. The school will pursue breakthroughs in memory, processors, electronic design automation and semiconductor equipment, and commercialize its fundamental research, Chi Baoyong, Professor at the new school, said.
The integrated circuit is at the heart of all information technology industries, which have long relied on the West in some advanced areas. Given its great significance, the sector has become a target for the U.S. in its bullying of Chinese firms, the Global Times reports. China is lacking around 200,000 chip-related experts a year. “There were few schools, universities or even majors in the subject in China before the founding of Tsinghua University’s school,” Xiang Ligang, Director General of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times. Xiang said that chip-making requires experts in both design and manufacturing. “Computer engineers can take charge of the design process, while electrical engineers handle manufacturing.”
Tsinghua University is the country’s premium talent development base for the semiconductor sector, with more than 7,500 graduates since the establishment of its integrated circuits major in 1956. It is hoped that with the establishment of this school, the shortage of chips and technical problems can be alleviated. Jointly established by the Department of Microelectronics and Nano-electronics and the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University, the new school will provide courses for students who major in related sectors including microelectronics and software engineering. More schools of this type are likely to be established as China goes full speed ahead in its industrial upgrade, the Global Times reports.
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