Electromechanical Technology Students at Onondaga Community College will soon be able to experience a simulated clean room lab as part of their education. New York State and Onondaga County is chipping in $5 million each to support Micron’s investment to potentially train its future workforce. Micron Executive VP for global operations Manish Bhatia says the facility will get students acquainted with working in a lab as they gain skills.
"This is an ideal location to train them on the precision requirements of operating a clean room," Bhatia said. "All the high precision equipment that we have for depositing, for etching, for patterning that goes into building leading edge semiconductors. We think this is going to be a terrific facility.”
OCC’s Technology Department chair Michael Grieb explains how the clean room simulator will introduce students of all ages to the experience of their choice.
"We’ll be able to go in there sometimes to teach a bigger group without being all suited up and learn those experiences," Grieb said. "We can also give those K-12 students maybe an experience of suiting up and what is it like to operate in that environment. For some people, it feels pretty claustrophobic, so it’s something they need to figure out… is this something I can work with or not?”
One of the first year students who heard about the Micron announcement just over a year ago is Allison Wilcox who relocated from Maryland. The 25-year-old Airforce Veteran decided to enroll into OCC’s Associates degree program to get her prepared for a future job at Micron.
"I want to learn technology because it’s going to keep on growing… and Micron seemed like it really had so many benefits for veterans, students, anyone my age," Wilcox said.
Construction on the approximately $15 million clean room simulation lab is set to begin within the next two weeks. The college and Micron hope it’s in operation by early 2025.
