Three consortia led by Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, and POSTECH
480 System Semiconductor Master's and Ph.D. Graduates by 2025
Approximately 48 billion won is scheduled to be invested from this year until the project concludes.


The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 28th that it has selected three consortia to participate in the system semiconductor convergence specialized workforce training project.

This project is designed to foster high-level design personnel by having a university collaborate with other universities, research institutes, and companies to implement a convergence education program in the system semiconductor field for its graduate students.

Following a call for proposals and evaluations conducted from February 10 to April 10, three consortia led by Seoul National University (AI semiconductor), Sungkyunkwan University (IoT semiconductor), and POSTECH (biomedical semiconductor) were selected as project implementing organizations out of a total of six applicant universities.

Each center will develop and operate customized educational curricula and courses for specialized fields, categorized into Semiconductor Basics, Semiconductor Advanced, Convergence Advanced, and PBL (Project Based Learning), based on a 4-semester master's program and a 6-semester doctoral program.

It fosters an understanding of high-level system semiconductor systems and practical capabilities through the completion of courses outside of one's major in basic and advanced programs, the development of industry-demand-based curricula, and the implementation of chip manufacturing projects, while also operating student support programs such as education and career counseling and startup mentoring.

Based on the recruitment of at least 20 master's students and 10 doctoral students in the fall semester of the first year of the project and in the spring semester starting from the second year, a total of 140 students, including 100 master's students and 40 doctoral students, will be produced over 6 years (4+2 years), and the project will receive government funding of approximately 9.6 billion won at a rate of 1.6 billion won per year.
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The Seoul National University consortium, selected as the AI Semiconductor Workforce Training Center, plans to operate customized educational programs by establishing specialized fields for each participating university, taking into account the fact that AI semiconductors are utilized in various sectors such as autonomous vehicles, medical devices, and image processing.

The Sungkyunkwan University consortium, selected as the IoT semiconductor workforce training center, plans to focus on PBL education in seven fields subdivided by functional units such as sensors and signal processing, memory, security, and system applications, and to establish a cooperative cluster through linkages with local governments, companies, and research institutes in the Gyeonggi and Chungcheong regions.

The POSTECH consortium, selected as the Biomedical Semiconductor Human Resource Development Center, operates three majors including Biomedical Sensors and Devices, Biomedical Convergence Circuit Design, and Biomedical System Design, and has set a goal to generate research results such as 100 papers and 45 patents based on PBL.

The three centers plan to develop the curriculum, organize subjects and instructors, and recruit new students by August of this year, and start the semester in September to produce a total of 480 personnel, including 335 master's degree holders and 145 doctoral degree holders, by 2025.

Meanwhile, two more centers are scheduled to be selected next year.