Using virtual reality to train the next generation of semiconductor workers

This is a course for our senior students to understand the semiconductor industry manufacturing processing techniques. As well as the principle behind the manufacturing. It's very important for students to have, you know, realistic hands-on experience in cleanroom tools. Using the VR module, students actually can have a realistic experience of the cleanroom environment and also have this modern interactive kind of educational training. Cornell has innovated this AR VR set up, and we are one of the first in their pilots to get in and provide our students and corporate trainees clean room experience. This collaboration with Cornell is a great opportunity from our side, from Virginia Tech’s side, to let the students know about the other cleanroom settings. Not limited to just one cleanroom setting. I think it's a great tool to help the students get a visual inside of a cleanroom, without all of the complex training. Which usually requires a week or two to finish before, if they needed to get into a clean room by themselves. The virtual program is making it so that we don't have to waste university resources to be able to get experience in the cleanroom. You're getting a basic understanding of it so that when you go into the clean room, or when you take a deeper dive into the process it makes it easier to translate what you have. These VR experiences really have helped me key in on what are the most important machines, what do we need to be doing to be familiar in the room. And going into the room for a tour. Being able to actually experience that just reinforces all that learning that we did. Virginia Tech is focusing on the future. That puts us ahead already. Just showing this effort, which is the very foundational, fundamental beginning of something incredible. This is a very scalable and cost efficient, and very formal mechanism to train our next generation. And to produce more workforce to supply this trillion dollar semiconductor AI innovation ecosystem.