Camille Crittenden
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Education Research
Semiconductor chips underpin nearly every modern technology, and the industry needs roughly 100,000 new workers per year through 2030 to meet production demand. Most students, though, do not encounter chip design or fabrication until late in their education, if at all — and students from backgrounds underrepresented in engineering are least likely to find a way in.
- Fields
Education Research
Engineering
Social Science
- Topics
semiconductor workforce
nanofabrication
undergraduate internships
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Sep 2026
What they work on
- Place undergraduates from four University of California campuses as NanoLab Fellows in the Berkeley Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory for an academic year plus summer, giving early hands-on semiconductor fabrication experience.
- Run eight-week paid Summer Fellow internships at semiconductor companies with work plans co-scoped by the university and host employer, so students gain meaningful experience and companies gain substantive outcomes.
- Deliver weekly summer professional-development workshops and one-on-one mentoring addressing job-readiness skills and barriers such as imposter syndrome, targeted to transfer, first-generation, Pell-eligible, women and underrepresented minority students.
- Evaluate the program's effect on student retention in STEM and on growth in professional identity and self-efficacy, to test whether the regional learning ecosystem model transfers to other emerging technology fields.
More about the research
This project asks whether placing undergraduates into real semiconductor work experiences early changes whether they stay in the field, and builds the programs to test it.
Why it matters
The U.S. semiconductor industry faces a large and persistent workforce shortfall. By giving undergraduates — including transfer, first-generation, Pell-eligible, women and underrepresented minority students — paid early access to nanofabrication facilities and industry internships, and by measuring what actually improves retention and professional confidence, this project could supply a model other regions and emerging technology sectors adapt to widen entry into technical careers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Allyson Sterling
Regis University, CO·Education Research
Create a paid, faculty-mentored summer research program for students between their first and second year of college, lowering financial and experience barriers to authentic research for first-generation, Latine and working students in the life sciences.
Mohammad Elahinia
University of Toledo, OH·Education Research
Engage about 150 Toledo high school students in after-school Mechatronics Clubs, using industry-standard Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and game-centered, hands-on electric vehicle activities that end in a team competition.
Todd Otanicar
Boise State University, ID·Engineering
Support graduate fellows for three years of stipend and education costs as they carry out fundamental research aligned with technology and innovation goals in microelectronics.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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