In this installment of CCC’s Weekly Computing News, we are sharing the interesting news of a new initiative at New York University’s (NYU) engineering department to make semiconductor design education more accessible.

Democratizing chip design with Chips4All

NYU Tandon School of Engineering is launching an exciting initiative called Chips4All. This program aligns with the goals of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act and aims to strengthen NYU’s role in chip design. 

Through Chips4All, doctoral and master’s students in various STEM fields, regardless of their engineering backgrounds, will learn how to design Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). These specialized chips are vital for advancements in areas like biomedical devices, cryptography, and computational biophysics.

The Chips4All program will bring together students from diverse disciplines, including medicine, chemistry, and computer science, with those from hardware-focused engineering backgrounds. Participants will take courses in each other’s fields, promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration. They will also end their training with a Hardware Prototyping Capstone, where teams will create prototypes for chips tailored to specific applications, such as gene sequencing and new cryptographic protocols.

With plans to train 308 graduate students, including 58 PhD candidates, starting in Spring 2025, Chips4All represents a significant step toward democratizing chip design education and creating a model for cross-disciplinary collaboration in the U.S.

Learn more about this initiative here.