Earlier this month, the BRIDG team spent a vigorous week at the nation’s largest semiconductor industry conference,
SEMICON West
. As tradition, this conference was preceded by imec’s invitation-only International Technology Forum (ITF) USA where some of the world’s brightest minds shared the latest emerging trends in the industry and their contributions to solving the associated challenges. Having these events occur on the same week in the same place made the cross-country trip doubly impactful.
In addition to important meetings and related follow ups, a key takeaway for me was the consistent reinforcement of the important role that BRIDG holds for our national security and US economy (which I mentioned in last month’s
newsletter
) and the fact that we are at a tipping point. This latter point made me really think about the rapid pace of technology and how far this industry has come during my career!
As a young electrical engineer in the 1980s, it was unbelievable to imagine that someday we would have microelectronic integrated circuits with the equivalent of 10,000 transistors to build our systems. Fast-forward 30 years, and devices with greater than 10 BILLION transistors are everywhere (that’s 1 million times the number of transistors we only dreamed of having in a single device in the 1980s). And today, these devices cost just a small fraction of what those 10,000 transistors devices were forecasted to cost. The really exciting part: lifelong industry veterans standing on stage one after the other passionately proclaiming that we’re only at the beginning!
The demands for processing to support Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things coupled with advances in ultra-high density interconnect capability, chip stacking, and new materials, as well as continued progress on extreme ultraviolet light-based lithography and other more traditional scaling are all converging to create the most rapid expansion of capabilities in a single device that we have ever experienced in the 60+ year history of the integrated circuit. Think about that in context of having a brand-new microelectronics fab quickly becoming operational right here in Central Florida!
Join us as we work together to build NeoCity and the surrounding region into an internationally recognized high tech community!
Chester Kennedy
CEO
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Heart of Florida United Way "Change Maker" Honoree
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BRIDG is being recognized as one of this year’s
Heart of Florida United Way
Change Makers of Central Florida
honorees in the “Ground Breakers” category for the work we are doing to change the face of the economy in Osceola County and for “inspiring a region through innovation and cultivating new economic opportunities for the future.” We are truly honored to be recognized by this wonderful organization and hope that we will continue making an impact on Central Florida as we move forward. Thank you, Heart of Florida United Way!
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BRIDG ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
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As CEO of FloridaMakes, Kevin Carr has dedicated most of his career to enhancing the nation’s manufacturing sector, with a focus on improving the competitiveness and profitability of small and medium-size manufacturers. Kevin comes to FloridaMakes after having led the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP).
Joining NIST in the first year of this experimental program, Kevin became the first NIST MEP Director, building the program from just seven pilot states to a nationally integrated system serving manufacturers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Under his leadership with state and federal policymakers, Kevin worked to increase manufacturers’ access to appropriate advanced manufacturing technology and resources through the federal labs and centers of excellence and challenged the MEP system to cultivate best practices, best-in-class services, and promote increased use of existing public and private resources to improve the foundation and future of American manufacturing. Upon his departure from NIST in 2005 to join the private sector, Kevin was recognized by Senator Hollings, the program’s namesake, for his efforts in transforming the pilot program to its current national scale. From the inception of NIST-Manufacturing Extension Partnership in 1988 through FY2017, the program has worked with 94,033 manufacturers, leading to $111.3 billion in sales and $18.8 billion in cost savings, and it has helped create and retain 985,317 jobs.
Kevin has provided management and strategic planning consulting to individual manufacturing companies, boards of directors, economic development organizations, trade associations and more. He has been recognized as a finalist for the Service to America for Business and Commerce and Harvard’s Innovation in Government Award. He was awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal for building MEP’s national system and was recently inducted into the NIST Gallery of Distinguished Scientists, Engineers and Administrators for “outstanding leadership of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership and implementing it into a model federal program with national impact on business development, innovation and job creation.” In addition, Kevin was appointed to the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees in December 2016. Kevin studied electronics engineering at Widener University and technology management at the University of Maryland.
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RECENT EVENTS / OTHER NEWS
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Make More Manufacturing Summit
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BRIDG joined hosting sponsors
Florida Chamber Foundation
,
FloridaMakes
,
CareerSource Florida
,
Enterprise Florida
, and many others to participate in the inaugural
MAKE MORE Manufacturing Summit
, a leadership-focused meeting designed around connecting ecosystem stakeholders with the needs and realities of industry leaders from the manufacturing sector. The summit provided the platform to exchange ideas around how state resources address the impact of market dynamics, economic trends and policies, and new technologies in manufacturing. During the summit, our CEO served as a panelist alongside distinguished leaders from throughout the state to discuss technology acceleration, talent development, and business growth in Florida. We are thankful to be part of the discussions as, together, we build a roadmap to strengthen and advance Florida's economy through innovation, talent development, and tech acceleration.
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We are currently looking for a Senior Process/Equipment Engineer to join our team. In case you are interested in applying, our hiring efforts are conducted in collaboration with the University of Central Florida and employment opportunities are listed at
https://www.jobswithucf.com/
(keyword: BRIDG).
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BRIDG and FloridaMakes will be co-hosting the International Microelectronics, Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS) - Florida Chapter’s Advanced Technical Workshop and Tabletops event “Smart Sensors, Research, Manufacturing and IoT Applications” at the BRIDG facility on August 23
rd
. Co-chaired by
Dr. Amit Kumar
(Associate Director, Research and Technology Services, BRIDG) and Dr. Tengfei Jiang (Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, UCF), this day-long event brings together those working in the areas of smart sensors, systems and advanced packaging technology to enable discussion and presentations on the latest semiconductor-based design, process, and materials for smart sensor and photonic technologies. For more information or to register, visit
http://imaps.org/florida/
.
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BRIDG is located at NeoCity in Osceola County, Florida.
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