Engineering at Illinois undergrads present research at TECHCON

10/13/2015

Students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign joined the nation’s top semiconductor scholars and industry leaders to share their research at the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s (SRC) 17th annual TECHCON conference. The conference, held Sept. 20-22 in Austin, Texas, showcased the forefront of semiconductor research and recognized professional and university participants for their contributions to the industry.

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Students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign joined the nation’s top semiconductor scholars and industry leaders to share their research at the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s (SRC) 17th annual TECHCON conference. The conference, held Sept. 20-22 in Austin, Texas, showcased the forefront of semiconductor research and recognized professional and university participants for their contributions to the industry.

The students from SRC’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO) program provides hands-on research and mentorship to attract students to semiconductor industry careers. Their attendance was made possible through the support of Intel Foundation, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, STARnet and SRC Education Alliance.

Three undergraduate students from Illinois were among the 250 undergraduate and graduate students invited from top-flight universities across the country to present their research at the conference. 

  • Ryan Han, Senior (MechSE, Graduated) presented “Methodology for Production and Identification of Few-­‐Layer Molybdenum Disulfide via Micromechanical Exfoliation”
  • Widianto Moestopo, (MechSE, Junior) presented “Single-Step Deposition of Textured Graphene Flexible Transparent Conductors on Solar Cell Components”
  • Grace Pakeltis, (MatSE, Junior) presented “Integration of Thin-Film Microscale III-V Lasers onto Silicon”
    • URO technical session presenter; 1 of 8 chosen out of 52 posters invited to TECHCON
    • Top 10 poster finalist

Altogether, more than 455 attendees participated in the 2015 conference.
Altogether, more than 455 attendees participated in the 2015 conference.
The papers selected for presentation at TECHCON represent a summary of the best research in SRC’s portfolio across all of the organization’s research programs. To be invited, students submitted an abstract of a research project for review by an SRC-coordinated committee, which selected projects based on rigorous and competitive criteria.

At the conference, students presented their papers during sessions organized by technical area of interest. They also made a poster presentation during a TechFair session where they could discuss their research one-on-one with other attendees. Industry experts, including Ken Hansen, CEO and President, Semiconductor Research Corporation; Gil Vandentop, Executive Director, STARnet, Semiconductor Research Corporation; Samantha Alt, Rotational & Software Engineer, Intel Corporation; Brennen Mueller, Senior Process Engineer, Intel Corporation; Daudi Onsongo, Senior Staff Engineer, Qualcomm, Inc.; and Daniel Herr, Professor & Nanoscience Department Chair, University of North Carolina/Greensboro, judged each session and recognized the best undergraduate posters with awards.

“TECHCON brings together the brightest young minds in microelectronics research to present their exciting discoveries ranging from new materials through architectural breakthroughs created by SRC’s network of more than 100 of the top engineering universities,” said SRC President Ken Hansen. “Students and industry leaders discuss basic research at TECHCON that is intended to accelerate advancements for both private and public entities."
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This story was published October 13, 2015.