VIAVI Solutions, a global provider of communications test and measurement and optical technologies, has joined the MIT.nano Consortium.

With roots going back to 1923 as Wandell and Goltermann and to 1948 as Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., VIAVI is a global enterprise supporting innovation in communication networks, hyperscale and enterprise data centers, consumer electronics, automotive sensing, mission-critical avionics, aerospace, and anti-counterfeiting technologies.

“VIAVI is an exciting new member of the MIT.nano Consortium. The company’s innovations overlap with MIT’s research interests in a variety of applications — electronics, 3D sensing, optics, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more,” says Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor of Emerging Technologies. “VIAVI’s awareness of industry needs will make them a valuable collaborator as we at MIT.nano work to develop new technologies in the lab that can successfully transition to the real world.”

With over 3,600 employees in 22 countries, VIAVI is poised to contribute global insights to the MIT.nano Consortium and MIT research community.

“VIAVI is delighted to be part of the extraordinary MIT.nano ecosystem,” says Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO of VIAVI. “MIT.nano occupies a unique position at the intersection of academia, industry, and government. We look forward to collaborating with the organization and its stakeholders focused on innovation in materials and processes that will enable the photonics applications of the future.”

The MIT.nano Consortium is a platform for academia-industry collaboration centered around research and innovation emerging from nanoscale science and engineering at MIT. Through activities that include quarterly industry consortium meetings, VIAVI will gain insight into the work of MIT.nano’s community of users and provide advice to help guide and advance nanoscale innovations at MIT alongside the 11 other consortium companies:

• Analog Devices
• Edwards
• Fujikura
• IBM Research
• Lam Research
• Lockheed Martin
• NC
• NEC
• Raith
• Shell
• UpNano

MIT.nano continues to welcome new companies as sustaining members. For more details, visit the MIT.nano Consortium page.

“I want to tell you that you don’t have to be just one thing,” said Katie Eckermann ’03, MEng ’04, director of business development at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) at a networking event for students considering careers in hard technologies. “There is a huge wealth of different jobs and roles within the semiconductor industry.”

Eckermann was one of two keynote speakers at the Design the Solution conference, presented by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Women’s Leadership Initiative, and co-sponsored by MIT.nano. Following the speaking portion of the event, attendees were invited to meet with representatives from AMD, Analog Devices, Applied Materials, Arm, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, Intel, Marvell, Micron Technology, Samsung, Synopsys, and TSMC. This annual February event was one in a series organized by the GSA Women’s Leadership Initiative and hosted at universities across the country to highlight the global impact of a career in semiconductors and recruit more women into the hard-tech ecosystem.

Eckermann was joined by John Wuu ’96, MEng ’97, senior fellow design engineer at AMD. Together, the two highlighted some of the key trends and most significant challenges of the semiconductor industry, as well as shared their career paths and advice.

Wuu highlighted the tremendous increase in computing performance in recent years, illustrated in 2022 by Hewlett Packard’s Frontier computer — calculating complex problems much faster than several other supercomputers combined. While supercomputer performance has doubled every 1.2 years over the last 30 years, power efficiency has doubled only every 2.2 years — thus underscoring a clear need to continue the pace of performance sustainably and responsibly.

“These performance improvements are not about trying to break records just for the sake of breaking records,” said Wuu. “The demand for computing is very high and insatiable, and the improvements in performance that we’re getting are being used to solve some of humanity’s most challenging and important problems — from space exploration to climate change, and more.”

Both Wuu and Eckermann encouraged students pursuing careers in semiconductors to focus on learning and stretching themselves, taking risks, and growing their network. They also emphasized the many different skill sets needed in the semiconductor industry and the common problems that often exist across different market segments.

“One of the most valuable things about MIT is that it doesn’t teach you how to recite formulas or to memorize facts, it teaches you a framework on how to think,” said Eckermann. “And when it comes down to engineering, it’s all about solving complex problems.”

Following the keynote, Deb Dyson, senior staff engineering manager at Marvell, moderated a panel discussion featuring Rose Castanares, senior vice president for business management at TSMC North America; Kate Shamberger, field technical director for the Americas at Analog Devices; and Thy Tran, vice president of global frontend procurement at Micron Technology.

The panelists described their own individual and diverse career journeys, also emphasizing the tremendous amount and variety of opportunities currently available in semiconductors.

“Everywhere you look [in the semiconductor industry], it is the epicenter of all the intersectionality of the disciplines,” said Tran. “It’s the pure sciences, the math, the engineering, application-based, theory-based — I can’t believe I got so lucky to be in this arena.”

Some key themes of the panel discussion included the importance of teamwork and understanding the people you’re working with, the development of leadership styles, and trying out different types of roles within the industry. All speakers encouraged students to identify what they like to do most and think broadly and flexibly about how they can apply their skills and interests — and, above all, to always be learning and gaining a breadth of knowledge.

“It’s important to be continually learning — not just in your field, but also adjunct to your field,” said Castanares. “It’s not about trying to prove that you’re the smartest person in the room, but the most curious person in the room — and then apply and share that knowledge.”

The Northeast Microelectronics Internship Program (NMIP), an initiative of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) to connect first- and second-year college students to careers in semiconductor and microelectronics industries, recently received a $75,000 grant to expand its reach and impact. The funding is part of $9.2 million in grants awarded by the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub to boost technology advancement, workforce development, education, and student engagement across the Northeast Region.

NMIP was founded by Tomás Palacios, the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, and director of MTL. The grant, he says, will help address a significant barrier limiting the number of students who pursue careers in critical technological fields.

“Undergraduate students are key for the future of our nation’s microelectronics workforce. They directly fill important roles that require technical fluency or move on to advanced degrees,” says Palacios. “But these students have repeatedly shared with us that the lack of internships in their first few semesters in college is the main reason why many move to industries with a more established tradition of hiring undergraduate students in their early years. This program connects students and industry partners to fix this issue.”

The NMIP funding was announced on Jan. 30 during an event featuring Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao, as well as leaders from the U.S. Department of Defense and the director of Microelectronics Commons at NSTXL, the National Security Technology Accelerator. The grant to support NMIP is part of $1.5 million in new workforce development grants aimed at spurring the microelectronics and semiconductor industry across the Northeast Region. The new awards are the first investments made by the NEMC Hub, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, that is overseeing investments made by the federal CHIPS and Science Act following the formal establishment of the NEMC Hub in September 2023.

“We are very excited for the recognition the program is receiving. It is growing quickly and the support will help us further dive into our mission to connect talented students to the broader microelectronics ecosystem while integrating our values of curiosity, openness, excellence, respect, and community,” says Preetha Kingsview, who manages the program. “This grant will help us connect to the broader community convened by NEMC Hub in close collaboration with MassTech. We are very excited for what this support will help NMIP achieve.”

The funds provided by the NEMC Microelectronics Commons Hub will help expand the program more broadly across the Northeast, to support students and grow the pool of skilled workers for the microelectronics sector regionally. After receiving 300 applications in the first two years, the program received 296 applications in 2024 from students interested in summer internships, and is working with more than 25 industry partners across the Northeast. These NMIP students not only participate in industry-focused summer internships, but are also exposed to the broader microelectronics ecosystem through bi-weekly field trips to microelectronics companies in the region.

“The expansion of the program across the Northeast, and potentially nationwide, will extend the impact of this program to reach more students and benefit more microelectronics companies across the region,” says Christine Nolan, acting NEMC Hub program director. “Through hands-on training opportunities we are able to showcase the amazing jobs that exist in this sector and to strengthen the pipeline of talented workers to support the mission of the NEMC Hub and the national CHIPs investments.”  

Sheila Wescott says her company, MACOM, a Lowell-based developer of semiconductor devices and components, is keenly interested in sourcing intern candidates from NMIP. “We already have a success story from this program,” she says. “One of our interns completed two summer programs with us and is continuing part time in the fall — and we anticipate him joining MACOM full time after graduation.”

“NMIP is an excellent platform to engage students with a diverse background and promote microelectronics technology,” says Bin Lu, CTO and co-founder of Finwave Semiconductor.  “Finwave has benefited from engaging with the young engineers who are passionate about working with electronics and cutting-edge semiconductor technology. We are committed to continuing to work with NMIP.”

A new set of advanced nanofabrication equipment will make MIT.nano one of the world’s most advanced research facilities in microelectronics and related technologies, unlocking new opportunities for experimentation and widening the path for promising inventions to become impactful new products.

The equipment, provided by Applied Materials, will significantly expand MIT.nano’s nanofabrication capabilities, making them compatible with wafers — thin, round slices of semiconductor material — up to 200 millimeters, or 8 inches, in diameter, a size widely used in industry. The new tools will allow researchers to prototype a vast array of new microelectronic devices using state-of-the-art materials and fabrication processes. At the same time, the 200-millimeter compatibility will support close collaboration with industry and enable innovations to be rapidly adopted by companies and mass produced.

MIT.nano’s leaders say the equipment, which will also be available to scientists outside of MIT, will dramatically enhance their facility’s capabilities, allowing experts in the region to more efficiently explore new approaches in “tough tech” sectors, including advanced electronics, next-generation batteries, renewable energies, optical computing, biological sensing, and a host of other areas — many likely yet to be imagined.

“The toolsets will provide an accelerative boost to our ability to launch new technologies that can then be given to the world at scale,” says MIT.nano Director Vladimir Bulović, who is also the Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technology. “MIT.nano is committed to its expansive mission — to build a better world. We provide toolsets and capabilities that, in the hands of brilliant researchers, can effectively move the world forward.”

The announcement comes as part of an agreement between MIT and Applied Materials, Inc. that, together with a grant to MIT from the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub, commits more than $40 million of estimated private and public investment to add advanced nano-fabrication equipment and capabilities at MIT.nano.

“We don’t believe there is another space in the United States that will offer the same kind of versatility, capability, and accessibility, with 8-inch toolsets integrated right next to more fundamental toolsets for research discoveries,” Bulović says. “It will create a seamless path to accelerate the pace of innovation.”

Pushing the boundaries of innovation

Applied Materials is the world’s largest supplier of equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, displays, and other advanced electronics. The company will provide at MIT.nano several state-of-the-art process tools capable of supporting 150- and 200-millimeter wafers and will enhance and upgrade an existing tool owned by MIT. In addition to assisting MIT.nano in the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the equipment, Applied Materials engineers will develop new process capabilities to benefit researchers and students from MIT and beyond.

“This investment will significantly accelerate the pace of innovation and discovery in microelectronics and microsystems,” says Tomás Palacios, director of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories and the Clarence J. Lebel Professor in Electrical Engineering. “It’s wonderful news for our community, wonderful news for the state, and, in my view, a tremendous step forward toward implementing the national vision for the future of innovation in microelectronics.”

Nanoscale research at universities is traditionally conducted on machines that are less compatible with industry, which makes academic innovations more difficult to turn into impactful, mass-produced products. Jorg Scholvin, associate director for MIT.nano’s shared fabrication facility, says the new machines, when combined with MIT.nano’s existing equipment, represent a step-change improvement in that area: Researchers will be able to take an industry-standard wafer and build their technology on top of it to prove to companies it works on existing devices, or to co-fabricate new ideas in close collaboration with industry partners.

“In the journey from an idea to a fully working device, the ability to begin on a small scale, figure out what you want to do, rapidly debug your designs, and then scale it up to an industry-scale wafer is critical,” Scholvin says. “It means a student can test out their idea on wafer-scale quickly and directly incorporate insights into their project so that their processes are scalable. Providing such proof-of-principle early on will accelerate the idea out of the academic environment, potentially reducing years of added effort. Other tools at MIT.nano can supplement work on the 200-millimeter wafer scale, but the higher throughput and higher precision of the Applied equipment will provide researchers with repeatability and accuracy that is unprecedented for academic research environments. Essentially what you have is a sharper, faster, more precise tool to do your work.”

Scholvin predicts the equipment will lead to exponential growth in research opportunities.

“I think a key benefit of these tools is they allow us to push the boundary of research in a variety of different ways that we can predict today,” Scholvin says. “But then there are also unpredictable benefits, which are hiding in the shadows waiting to be discovered by the creativity of the researchers at MIT. With each new application, more ideas and paths usually come to mind — so that over time, more and more opportunities are discovered.”

Because the equipment is available for use by people outside of the MIT community, including regional researchers, industry partners, nonprofit organizations, and local startups, they will also enable new collaborations.

“The tools themselves will be an incredible meeting place — a place that can, I think, transpose the best of our ideas in a much more effective way than before,” Bulović says. “I’m extremely excited about that.”

Palacios notes that while microelectronics is best known for work making transistors smaller to fit on microprocessors, it’s a vast field that enables virtually all the technology around us, from wireless communications and high-speed internet to energy management, personalized health care, and more.

He says he’s personally excited to use the new machines to do research around power electronics and semiconductors, including exploring promising new materials like gallium nitride, which could dramatically improve the efficiency of electronic devices.

Fulfilling a mission

MIT.nano’s leaders say a key driver of commercialization will be startups, both from MIT and beyond.

“This is not only going to help the MIT research community innovate faster, it’s also going to enable a new wave of entrepreneurship,” Palacios says. “We’re reducing the barriers for students, faculty, and other entrepreneurs to be able to take innovation and get it to market. That fits nicely with MIT’s mission of making the world a better place through technology. I cannot wait to see the amazing new inventions that our colleagues and students will come out with.”

Bulović says the announcement aligns with the mission laid out by MIT’s leaders at MIT.nano’s inception.

"We have the space in MIT.nano to accommodate these tools, we have the capabilities inside MIT.nano to manage their operation, and as a shared and open facility, we have methodologies by which we can welcome anyone from the region to use the tools,” Bulović says. “That is the vision MIT laid out as we were designing MIT.nano, and this announcement helps to fulfill that vision.”

On Wednesday night, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy sat down with four creators from Australia and New Zealand for a Q&A stream. The creators involved – 8bitElliot, JackHuddo, Carla, and Trash – were free to throw questions to Clancy and Twitch’s ANZ content director Lewis Mitchell about the state of its Australian business and support for local streamers. 

There’s been a growing restlessness among creators in the ANZ region since a major wave of redundancies in January gutted its Australian operations. Previously clear communications and healthy support that local creators enjoyed before the layoffs have dramatically withered in the months since. Many of Twitch’s bigger local creators have found it harder and harder to draw the company’s attention as it focuses on more populous and lucrative North American and European regions.

Though Clancy stressed at the beginning of the stream that he hoped it would be a fun conversation, the creators came prepared to play hardball. What they were given was two hours of broad assurances that left Australian creators feeling uncertain and unsatisfied.

The future of Twitch ANZ

Trash did not beat around the bush, immediately hitting Clancy with what is, for creators, the obvious question: What is the future of Twitch ANZ? 

It’s clear that the January layoffs – a global reduction of 500 jobs that decimated the ANZ team – have badly damaged Twitch’s operations in ANZ. In the months since, the lines of communication have gone dark. Creators are feeling under-resourced and unloved. What is Twitch doing about this? Does it even care about us anymore?

Clancy’s lengthy answer wasn’t as good at reassuring local creators as it was at covering the company’s arse. What he felt was “tricky to appreciate” about the layoffs was that, from the company’s perspective, Twitch ANZ was over-resourced compared to other regions. "For quite some time, we actually invested, in terms of the number of people working on ANZ, it was quite disproportionate, in terms of the number of creators, the number of partners, the number of streamers, everything."

"A big thing that we’ve been needing to do is kind of look (at) where we’re spending our money and being as efficient as possible, because every dollar we have is the cut we take from streamers’ rev shares. … Don’t take us feeling like there’s less resources as us not caring about ANZ. We do care deeply about Australia and New Zealand, I think it’s a critical market."

Translation: Twitch was spending too much on ANZ and not making its investment back. This comes as no surprise. Despite the massive influence it exerts on the livestreaming space, Twitch is famously unprofitable. In a livestream from January, Clancy admitted that, prior to the layoffs, Twitch had been relying on financial backing from parent company Amazon to remain afloat. The slashing and burning of regional offices, like Twitch ANZ, was done to keep the company from financially bleeding to death.

Asked by JackHuddo about the size of Twitch’s ANZ operations post-layoffs and whether Mitchell was now doing the work of what had previously been an entire team, both Mitchell and Clancy avoided a direct answer. A marketing team was mentioned, but not whether they were ANZ-based or resources allocated from a wider APAC (Asia Pacific) team.

Another answer about Twitch Rivals and its viability in Australia pointed to difficulties offering value to creators while paying the bills. Clancy spoke about how Twitch has been trying to evolve Rivals (the ANZ version of which didn’t even stream on the main Rivals channel) to ensure it brings in the kinds of views required to make it worth Twitch’s while financially. 

This went down like a lead balloon in 8bitElliot’s chat, with creators wondering when the platform will start prioritising community sentiment ahead of metrics. The answer, even if Clancy isn’t able to say so, seems fairly clear: The business reality is that it can’t, not if it wants to survive.

However, Clancy does point out that he isn’t just keeping his eye on the region through the safety of a spreadsheet. The CEO is making several trips to Australia this year. His first was at Dreamhack Melbourne, where he roamed the halls and sounded out larger local creators. He will return in October for back-to-back appearances at PAX Australia and SXSW Sydney. Travel is a big component of Clancy’s role. As he correctly points out, Australia is not terribly easy to get to but he’s making the effort to get down here anyway. 

I will give him this: three trips in a year is more attention than most American CEOs pay us in a lifetime. However, the frequent flier miles need to be backed up with results. The face time is good, but taking feedback gleaned from these trips and doing something with it is better.

A global approach (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere)

Since the January layoffs, many ANZ creators have noticed support from Twitch HQ drying up. Communication between Twitch and creators had become slower and more difficult. The transparency Twitch ANZ offered local creators around which new programs were geolocked was gone. Even the company’s local social media channels, which had been used to promote channels of all sizes, had gone dark.

Mitchell chimed in to note that Twitch ANZ socials were firing up again and that promotion would continue (though appears Twitch has contracted an external agency for help).

Answers around creator programs excluding ANZ creators were considerably murkier. According to Mitchell, programs like Twitch Ambassadors are being rolled out in larger markets before they can be rolled out in smaller ones like ANZ. This is an inversion of the previous strategy, where markets like ANZ were used as test beds precisely because of their smaller population. Curiously, Clancy puts this down to various languages and cultures, with the company focusing on English-language streamers in regions like APAC. According to Clancy, certain programs can’t "scale globally" (i.e. work in every region, due to cultural sensitivities or legislative concerns). 

Even requests for smaller community programs, like a Twitch Unity Guild dedicated to First Nations and Torres Strait Islander creators were met with a similar response: we’d love to some day, and we’re working on it. Clancy appeared unaware of programs like Twitch ANZ Grassroots, a previous avenue for promoting smaller creators and affiliates.

Clancy then went on to say that his wider strategy revolves around putting money back in creators’ pockets, like lowering the threshold for entering the revenue sharing Plus Program, but did not get into any further specifics.

Even things like booths at shows like PAX have been de-emphasised. Twitch is not alone in this, many major parties in the games industry have been attempting to move away from conventions like PAX in an effort to save money. In Twitch’s case, it moved toward officially sanctioned Gatherings to give creators IRL spaces to socialise and network. Carla immediately disputed this, pointing out how successful the Twitch booth at PAX Australia had been in 2023, well beyond what local Gatherings had been able to accomplish. Clancy appeared unmoved, but admitted in regions as far-flung as ANZ there is a case for retaining the convention booth strategy.

Broadly, what Clancy and Mitchell are saying makes sense as a business case, but it also makes it clear what the layoffs have cost Twitch streamers in ANZ. In 2023, ANZ was using its resources to thrive. Now, we’re bundled up with much larger, more populous, far more important markets, and it shows. Despite Clancy’s insistence that we remain an important market, and his own regular visits, ANZ has plainly been shuffled down the order of priority.

Though Clancy stressed at the beginning of the stream that he hoped it would be a fun conversation, the creators came prepared to play hardball. What they were given was two hours of broad assurances that left Australian creators feeling uncertain and unsatisfied.

Live ANZ reaction

As the chat went on, sentiment from creators watching the stream began to roll in online, and few were feeling positive.

Here, the division between the needs of the region and the needs of the business are cast in black and white. Local creators want more, they want to be taken seriously and given the opportunities of their contemporaries in larger markets. That’s a fair request, but it seems clearer than ever that Twitch can’t help them without spending money it may not have.

Where to now?

For Twitch, Australia has become the same problem it has been to so many American companies: a region too small and underpopulated to worry about when money’s tight. Though I’m sure Clancy meant every nice thing he said about us as a region, his responses paint a picture of a company with too many masters and no money with which to serve their increasingly complex needs. It’s a battle that can’t be won – creators who’ve turned to the platform as a way to make a living are at odds with a company that cannot seem to turn a profit.

If Twitch hopes to take a global view of what it can offer creators and viewers alike, then it needs to ensure that every region gets a fair shake, not just those in the Northern Hemisphere. That feels like it goes without saying, but as Australians know, Americans rarely think about anything that goes on below the equator.

In the end, creators can only hope that the chat gave Clancy something to think about. And if it didn’t, he will hear about it in person in Sydney and Melbourne this October.

The shortest amount of downtime between projects I had was two weeks. We shipped the game, I took my comp time, and I came back and started on a new project. We weren't going at full speed yet - it was mostly just exploratory preproduction work for the new game - but it was still work. The longest amount of downtime was indefinite. The project finished, didn't sell well, and almost everybody got laid off as a result.

Normally what happens is that we get off-the-books comp time, usually some factor of how much time we crunched before launch, and then we come back for a few weeks/months of taking it easy, doing retrospectives, and brainstorming new ideas for what we want to do next, and then ramping back to a normal work week after that.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

• Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter
• Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr
• Frequent Questions: The FAQ

Amid all the competing headlines of the 2024 election, there may be no more bread-and-butter issue—literally—than how much Americans are paying to put food on their tables. The GOP is gearing up to attack the Biden-Harris administration for escalating grocery store bills, while presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has now responded with her own plan to fight higher food prices. 

One of the hottest items in this political food fight is unquestionably the ongoing litigation from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attempting to block the Kroger-Albertsons grocery store merger. A host of Democratic lawmakers recently joined the legal fight, arguing that any potential merger would raise prices, increase food deserts, and disproportionately hurt unionized labor. As part of her new food price plan, Harris included a call for aggressive antitrust crackdowns in the food and grocery industry, mentioning the Kroger-Albertsons merger by name in her speech this week.

None of the arguments against the merger make much sense on the merits, but the FTC—and the Democratic Party writ large—are stacking the legal deck to achieve a predetermined outcome that conveniently aligns with their policy priorities.

The saga started back in October 2022, when The Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies Inc. (the parent company for popular grocery chains like Safeway and Acme, among others) announced their plans for a $24.6 billion merger. The FTC promptly launched a 16-month investigation, culminating in a lawsuit in federal court to block the proposed merger.

Kroger is the fourth-largest grocery store chain in America—behind Walmart, Amazon, and Costco—and Albertsons is the fifth-largest. Once merged, the combined company would rise to third on the list. On the surface, this may seem to provide some support for the FTC's position, but American shoppers would be wise to read the fine print.  

In truth, if the deal were to proceed, a merged version of Kroger and Albertsons would still only make up 9 percent of overall grocery sales. To put this in further perspective, consider that Walmart—the nation's largest grocery provider—would continue to operate more stores (including its Sam's Club outlets) than a Kroger-Albertson combo and maintain grocery revenue that is more than twice that of the merged company. 

One could easily argue, in other words, that far from being a monopoly, a Kroger-Albertsons joint venture would be the best hedge against potential monopolies forming among the even-more-dominant firms above it on the grocery store food chain. But incredibly, the FTC pretends that two of those larger companies don't exist in the marketplace at all simply by working with their own definitions.

The FTC contends that only local brick-and-mortar supermarkets (what one might think of as a "traditional" grocery store) and hypermarkets (such as Walmart or Target, which sell groceries alongside other goods) count in the market for groceries. This narrow definition completely circumvents wholesale-club stores (such as Costco) and e-commerce companies that sell groceries (such as Amazon). 

Given that Amazon and Costco just happen to be the second- and third-largest grocery retailers in the United States, the agency is blatantly gerrymandering the definition of the marketplace. The agency's longstanding position is that the only relevant market is stores where consumers can buy all or nearly all of their weekly groceries, which begs the question: Has anyone at the FTC stepped foot inside a Costco recently? Many Americans use club stores like Costco and BJ's Wholesale Club as their primary grocery stores, with around 15 percent of Americans ages 18–34 reporting that they do most of their grocery shopping at Costco.  

Pretending that the internet doesn't exist makes even less sense. As the International Center for Law and Economics notes, 25 years ago a mere 10,000 households took part in online shopping, whereas today 12.5 percent of consumers (or over 16 million people) purchase their groceries "mostly or exclusively" online. Amazon is also preparing to make its own big push into brick-and-mortar grocery retailing as well, with CEO Andy Jassy saying last year that the company must "find a mass grocery format that we believe is worth expanding broadly."

Beyond the FTC's tortured marketplace definitions, its arguments for the alleged harms of a conjoined Kroger-Albertsons are equal parts unconvincing and outdated. In its complaint, the agency points to escalating grocery prices in recent years, and Harris echoed this by stating that she would enact a "ban on price gouging on food and groceries" by directing the FTC to impose "harsh penalties" on grocers. She also pledged to continue aggressive antitrust enforcement in the food sector, going so far as to highlight the Kroger-Albertsons merger as an example of the type of deal that could increase prices. However, as many commentators have pointed out, food price increases likely have more to do with inflation than any lack of competition in grocery markets.

In addition to the consumer price harms the FTC alleges, over half of the agency's legal complaint focuses on the alleged harm the proposed merger would cause to the unionized workers at Kroger and Albertsons. Both companies are heavily unionized—in contrast to Walmart and Amazon—and the agency claims that a combined company would have more leverage over unions given that the unions would no longer be able to play one company off against the other as a negotiating tactic. This glosses over the fact that the demand for labor is particularly competitive in the retail sector broadly, and workers could easily just jump ship to a different employer in the face of any exploitative terms pushed by the merged firm.

A final concern highlighted by some Democratic lawmakers is that a merged company could result in more store closures that lead to geographical areas within which there are few or no grocery options. Once again, this ignores the rise of club stores like Costco and online/home delivery grocery options. These alternatives reduce the plausible areas within which such food deserts can take hold, showing once again a poor understanding of the modern grocery marketplace.

Despite the many dubious underpinnings of the FTC's challenge, it fits with the Biden administration's aggressive antitrust emphasis over the past four years. While some observers were holding out hope that a Harris administration might curtail overzealous antitrust enforcement, her new food price agenda has poured cold water all over that (already wishful) thinking.

The post Harris Joins the FTC's Food Fight Against Kroger-Albertsons Merger appeared first on Reason.com.

Game: Black Myth: Wukong
Article Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Chinese studio Game Science will release the highly anticipated Black Myth: Wukong tomorrow. A few days ago, the first reviews were published, suggesting that the gameplay legend of the Monkey King is a success, even if it has yet to escape optimization problems or bugs. However, besides the praise, there was also a controversy – a document was leaked to social networks, which was sent out by Hero Games to streamers and influencers, urging them not to mention “politics,” “feminist propaganda,” or even COVID-19 in their work related to the game.

Censorship Under the Guise of Guidelines

In a positive sense, the appeal is limited to a single bullet point: “Enjoy the game!” The prohibitions section begins sparingly: “Don’t insult other influencers and players. Do not use offensive language or humor.” But then the briefing starts to veer into censorship.

The Forbidden Words List

“Do not include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, or other content that encourages negative discourse in your coverage of the game. Don’t use trigger words such as ‘quarantine,’ ‘isolation’ or ‘COVID-19’. Do not talk about the game in the context of measures, opinions, and news regarding the Chinese gaming industry,” reads the pamphlet, first published by French streamer ExServ, aka Benoit Reinier. He first showed the instructions on the social networking site BlueSky. He later made a video about them and stated that he would not be covering Black Myth: Wukong because of the restrictions and wanted nothing to do with it.

Verifying the Leak: A Silenced Media

VideoGames.si magazine subsequently verified the email’s authenticity, and Forbes journalist Paul Tassi also stood up for it. The UK’s Eurogamer adds. The instructions were given to content creators, streamers, and other influencers. It was not a document intended for reviewers. IGN’s Travis Northup was added to the Bitcast podcast. The publisher tried to intervene in the review process. They wanted to limit the length of the video review to a maximum of 10 minutes due to the size of the medium. They managed to win an exception at some points.

A Troubled Past Resurfaces

Game Science has faced criticism for the toxic work culture and misogyny of studio founder and CEO Feng Ji. Thus, the leaked instructions from the publisher were meant to prevent further airing of the Chinese company’s affairs. Neither Game Science Studio nor publisher Hero Games have commented on the matter— Black Myth: Wukong releases on PC and PlayStation 5 tomorrow, August 20. The Xbox Series X/S version has been delayed indefinitely.

For more information, check the official page here!
Keep an eye out for an upcoming review in the Games Reviews section on our website!

The post Streamers Have Received Controversial Instructions From Black Myth: Wukong’s Publisher appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

Article Reading Time: 2 minutes

Embracer Group announced during its first quarter financial results for fiscal year 2024-2025 that they will delay the release of “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2”. Warhorse Studio had originally promised the sequel to one of the Czech Republic’s most successful games for this year in a trailer and press releases. That’s why gamers were expecting information about when exactly during the upcoming autumn season the expected RPG will arrive. Still, according to the newly released release date, the game is unfortunately postponed until next year, namely February 11, 2025.

A Strategic Shift to February

The information appeared in a report published at 7 am on August 15. That’s the only thing currently from Embracer because of the date shift in the linked report. Aside from ironing out technical kinks, the motive is supposed to be to give the game enough space, so February is supposed to be the earliest and most convenient date.

Developer Response: Delayed But Determined

However, the Kingdom Come developers have publicly reacted to the release delay via a short video. In it, Tobias Stolz-Zwilling mentions that although the developers tried hard, they fell short of releasing it this year. But he added that at least they have a nice release date based on the anniversary week of the first episode, which was released on February 13, 2018. Furthermore, Tobi confirms that the release date reveal is just the beginning of what fans can imagine as a marathon. He recaps that the game will be at Gamescom, that a lengthy gameplay video will be released, reportedly with minimal cuts, and that impressions of actual gameplay from journalists will arrive.

Pre-orders and Collector’s Edition Tease

Kingdom Come “Pre-orders are also launching, so if you’re planning to buy the game, get your pennies ready; your time is coming,” Tobi added, revealing the Collector’s Edition packaging in the video. For now, though, we’re just seeing the giant box, which will be shown in detail at Gamescom.

Full Czech Localization for an Authentic Experience

Now, “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” will launch at a later date for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series. The developers will include complete Czech localization, including dubbing, for domestic fans on all platforms. Warhorse recently announced that they will reveal more details about the game at Gamescom. They plan to show a short teaser during Opening Night Live, followed by a 25-minute gameplay video on August 21.
Check out the official page or the second trailer here for more information! Stay tuned to our page for upcoming news!

The post Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Postponed appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

Platform: PlayStation 5
Article Reading Time: 4 minutes

Sony recently revealed information about its results for the first quarter of its new fiscal year (April 1 to June 30). It sold 2.4 million PlayStation 5 consoles during the quarter, down from 3.3 million a year ago. So hardware sales are down, but even so, 61.7 million PlayStation 5 consoles have been sold, which isn’t bad at all. The results for the gaming division were otherwise positive, with sales up 12% year-over-year and operating income up 32%. According to the report, Sony owes this to increased first-party game sales (Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, and Rise of the Ronin) and network services like PlayStation Plus. Given these results, Sony is now forecasting slightly better revenues for its games division for the 2024 financial year than at the beginning.

Strong Gaming Division Performance Despite Hardware Sales Drop

Despite the slight PlayStation 5 console sales dip this quarter, Sony’s overall gaming division performance remains strong. The decrease in hardware sales is not unexpected, as the PS5 is now in its fourth year on the market. This pattern is typical in console lifecycles, where initial demand surges and then gradually stabilizes.

The success of Sony’s first-party titles is particularly noteworthy. Games like Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade have boosted sales and successfully demonstrated Sony’s ability to launch new IPs. This is crucial for maintaining player interest and expanding the PlayStation ecosystem beyond established franchises.

The growth in network services, especially PlayStation Plus, indicates Sony’s successful pivot towards digital and subscription-based revenue streams. This aligns with broader industry trends and provides a more stable, recurring income source compared to the cyclical nature of hardware sales.

Forecasting a Bright Future: Sony’s Strategic Moves and Market Adaptations

Sony’s optimistic forecast for the 2024 financial year suggests confidence in its upcoming game lineup and services. The company likely plans several high-profile releases to maintain momentum. Additionally, strategies, such as potential hardware revisions or bundles, maybe in place to reinvigorate hardware sales.

It’s worth noting that the gaming industry as a whole has been resilient in the face of global economic challenges. Sony’s positive results reflect this trend, showcasing the enduring appeal of gaming as a form of entertainment.

The company’s focus on diverse revenue streams – hardware, software, and services – provides a balanced approach that can help weather fluctuations in any single area. This strategy has proven effective so far and will likely continue to be crucial in maintaining Sony’s strong position in the competitive gaming market.

As the current console generation matures, it will be interesting to see how Sony adapts its strategies to maintain growth and engagement. This may include further expansion of cloud gaming services, exploration of new technologies like VR, or even early preparations for the next generation of console hardware.

The post Sony has sold over 61 million PlayStation 5 consoles since release in November 2020 appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

Source

After 33 years of bringing video game publishing news to the mainstream, Game Informer has sadly announced their closure today.

The video game industry has been facing serious issues over the past few years, with companies making mass mergers and conducting mass layoffs. Even positive announcements come from studios looking to make a splash with their next hit title. Whether bad or good, Game Informer has always been a pillar of information, ready to expose details surrounding all of the gaming universe’s latest offerings.

After 33 years of gaming publishing, Game Informer has announced its closure. The announcement was made on the publication’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, which can be seen below.

The sign-off reads, “Thank you for being part of our epic quest, and may your own gaming adventures never end.” Online Content Director Brian Shea was taken off guard by the announcement, posting his own message: “I love you all so much. Thank you for reading our work over the last 33 years. I didn’t know this would be my Friday when I woke up this morning. My heart is broken.”

Other gaming industry veterans have also gathered on the X platform to express condolences for the publication, including former Editor-in-Chief Andy McNamara. He wrote “As someone who was there at issue one and spent most of their life fighting and scratching and clawing for GI, it breaks my heart to see it end. GI will always hold a special place in my heart. As always, the people are who matter. What an amazing journey for us all. GI4ever” on his own X account, lamenting the publication’s closure.

UPDATE Aug 5: Game Informer’s Website & X Accounts Have Been Scrubbed

Previously this article was written after the surprising news that Game Informer was shuttered, and the website remained intact as well as the X account for the publication. But it appears that is no longer the case, heading to the former GI domain leads straight to the announcement, and no former publications from the site can be seen. Below is the official X page of Game Informer as it stands.

Former Game Informer Online Content Director Brian Shea has taken to the internet, not to bash the decision to shutter the magazine, but instead uplift former colleagues to support the overwhelming job loss. On his official LinkedIn page, Shea writes “If you need experienced editors, graphic designers, programmers, or marketing specialists, please reach out. We had an incredible, experienced staff that deserve to be treated like the outstanding assets that they are. I will wholeheartedly recommend any of them.”

What’s worse, is many of the publication’s writers have lost months/years of work published on the site. Business Consultant Michael Futter took to his personal LinkedIn to share what happened to the publication in a long-winded post. He says “Game Informer was unceremoniously and, frankly, brutally shuttered at the end of last week. The website was fully redirected, and both current and past staff have no way to access their work,” continuing with an explanation of what happened to the official X account.

Futter explained that after a former GI employee issued a “REAL goodbye from the team” the X account abruptly ceased to exist. After 33 long years of bringing gaming news and information to the masses, it appears any evidence of their publishing has been washed from the internet. Parent company GameStop has not issued an official statement at the time of this posting.

We know that Google shelled out billions to be the default search engine on Safari. The tech giant is clearly proud of its search engine market dominance, and plans to keep it that way. For reference, as of July 2024, Google boasted a 91.02 percent search engine market share worldwide, with Bing coming in at a distant second with a 3.88 percent market share, and Moscow-based Yandex coming in at third with 1.36 percent.

Neuralink's brain chip has been implanted into a second patient as part of early human trials, Elon Musk told podcast host Lex Fridman on Saturday. The company hasn't disclosed when the surgery took place or the name of the recipient, according to Reuters.

Musk said 400 of the electrodes on the second patient's brain are working out of 1,024 implanted. "I don't want to jinx it but it seems to have gone extremely well," he said. "There's a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It's working very well." 

The device allows patients with spinal cord injuries to play video games, use the internet and control electronic devices using their thoughts alone. In May, the company announced that it was "accepting applications for the second participant" in trials following FDA approval. 

The original Neuralink implant patient, Nolan Arbaugh, described the surgery as "super easy." In a demo, the company showed how Arbaugh was able to move a cursor around the screen of a laptop, pause an on-screen music device and play chess and Civilization VI.

Arbaugh himself participated in the marathon podcast with Musk and Fridman. He said that the device allows him to make anything happen on a computer screen just by thinking it, helping reduce his reliance on caregivers. 

However, problems cropped up shortly after his surgery when some of electrodes retracted from his brain. The issue was partly rectified later on by modifying the algorithm to make the implants more sensitive. Neuralink told the FDA that in a second procedure, it would place the implant’s threads deeper into the patient’s brain to prevent them from moving as much as they did in Arbaugh’s case.

Neuralink previously tested its implant in animals, including chimps, and some of those testing practices have been the subject of federal investigations. 

Despite those issues, the company said it had over 1,000 volunteers for its second surgical trial. Musk said he expects Neuralink to implant its chips in up to eight more patients by the end of 2024.  

VIAVI Solutions, a global provider of communications test and measurement and optical technologies, has joined the MIT.nano Consortium.

With roots going back to 1923 as Wandell and Goltermann and to 1948 as Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., VIAVI is a global enterprise supporting innovation in communication networks, hyperscale and enterprise data centers, consumer electronics, automotive sensing, mission-critical avionics, aerospace, and anti-counterfeiting technologies.

“VIAVI is an exciting new member of the MIT.nano Consortium. The company’s innovations overlap with MIT’s research interests in a variety of applications — electronics, 3D sensing, optics, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more,” says Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor of Emerging Technologies. “VIAVI’s awareness of industry needs will make them a valuable collaborator as we at MIT.nano work to develop new technologies in the lab that can successfully transition to the real world.”

With over 3,600 employees in 22 countries, VIAVI is poised to contribute global insights to the MIT.nano Consortium and MIT research community.

“VIAVI is delighted to be part of the extraordinary MIT.nano ecosystem,” says Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO of VIAVI. “MIT.nano occupies a unique position at the intersection of academia, industry, and government. We look forward to collaborating with the organization and its stakeholders focused on innovation in materials and processes that will enable the photonics applications of the future.”

The MIT.nano Consortium is a platform for academia-industry collaboration centered around research and innovation emerging from nanoscale science and engineering at MIT. Through activities that include quarterly industry consortium meetings, VIAVI will gain insight into the work of MIT.nano’s community of users and provide advice to help guide and advance nanoscale innovations at MIT alongside the 11 other consortium companies:

• Analog Devices
• Edwards
• Fujikura
• IBM Research
• Lam Research
• Lockheed Martin
• NC
• NEC
• Raith
• Shell
• UpNano

MIT.nano continues to welcome new companies as sustaining members. For more details, visit the MIT.nano Consortium page.

“I want to tell you that you don’t have to be just one thing,” said Katie Eckermann ’03, MEng ’04, director of business development at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) at a networking event for students considering careers in hard technologies. “There is a huge wealth of different jobs and roles within the semiconductor industry.”

Eckermann was one of two keynote speakers at the Design the Solution conference, presented by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Women’s Leadership Initiative, and co-sponsored by MIT.nano. Following the speaking portion of the event, attendees were invited to meet with representatives from AMD, Analog Devices, Applied Materials, Arm, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, Intel, Marvell, Micron Technology, Samsung, Synopsys, and TSMC. This annual February event was one in a series organized by the GSA Women’s Leadership Initiative and hosted at universities across the country to highlight the global impact of a career in semiconductors and recruit more women into the hard-tech ecosystem.

Eckermann was joined by John Wuu ’96, MEng ’97, senior fellow design engineer at AMD. Together, the two highlighted some of the key trends and most significant challenges of the semiconductor industry, as well as shared their career paths and advice.

Wuu highlighted the tremendous increase in computing performance in recent years, illustrated in 2022 by Hewlett Packard’s Frontier computer — calculating complex problems much faster than several other supercomputers combined. While supercomputer performance has doubled every 1.2 years over the last 30 years, power efficiency has doubled only every 2.2 years — thus underscoring a clear need to continue the pace of performance sustainably and responsibly.

“These performance improvements are not about trying to break records just for the sake of breaking records,” said Wuu. “The demand for computing is very high and insatiable, and the improvements in performance that we’re getting are being used to solve some of humanity’s most challenging and important problems — from space exploration to climate change, and more.”

Both Wuu and Eckermann encouraged students pursuing careers in semiconductors to focus on learning and stretching themselves, taking risks, and growing their network. They also emphasized the many different skill sets needed in the semiconductor industry and the common problems that often exist across different market segments.

“One of the most valuable things about MIT is that it doesn’t teach you how to recite formulas or to memorize facts, it teaches you a framework on how to think,” said Eckermann. “And when it comes down to engineering, it’s all about solving complex problems.”

Following the keynote, Deb Dyson, senior staff engineering manager at Marvell, moderated a panel discussion featuring Rose Castanares, senior vice president for business management at TSMC North America; Kate Shamberger, field technical director for the Americas at Analog Devices; and Thy Tran, vice president of global frontend procurement at Micron Technology.

The panelists described their own individual and diverse career journeys, also emphasizing the tremendous amount and variety of opportunities currently available in semiconductors.

“Everywhere you look [in the semiconductor industry], it is the epicenter of all the intersectionality of the disciplines,” said Tran. “It’s the pure sciences, the math, the engineering, application-based, theory-based — I can’t believe I got so lucky to be in this arena.”

Some key themes of the panel discussion included the importance of teamwork and understanding the people you’re working with, the development of leadership styles, and trying out different types of roles within the industry. All speakers encouraged students to identify what they like to do most and think broadly and flexibly about how they can apply their skills and interests — and, above all, to always be learning and gaining a breadth of knowledge.

“It’s important to be continually learning — not just in your field, but also adjunct to your field,” said Castanares. “It’s not about trying to prove that you’re the smartest person in the room, but the most curious person in the room — and then apply and share that knowledge.”

The Northeast Microelectronics Internship Program (NMIP), an initiative of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) to connect first- and second-year college students to careers in semiconductor and microelectronics industries, recently received a $75,000 grant to expand its reach and impact. The funding is part of $9.2 million in grants awarded by the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub to boost technology advancement, workforce development, education, and student engagement across the Northeast Region.

NMIP was founded by Tomás Palacios, the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, and director of MTL. The grant, he says, will help address a significant barrier limiting the number of students who pursue careers in critical technological fields.

“Undergraduate students are key for the future of our nation’s microelectronics workforce. They directly fill important roles that require technical fluency or move on to advanced degrees,” says Palacios. “But these students have repeatedly shared with us that the lack of internships in their first few semesters in college is the main reason why many move to industries with a more established tradition of hiring undergraduate students in their early years. This program connects students and industry partners to fix this issue.”

The NMIP funding was announced on Jan. 30 during an event featuring Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao, as well as leaders from the U.S. Department of Defense and the director of Microelectronics Commons at NSTXL, the National Security Technology Accelerator. The grant to support NMIP is part of $1.5 million in new workforce development grants aimed at spurring the microelectronics and semiconductor industry across the Northeast Region. The new awards are the first investments made by the NEMC Hub, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, that is overseeing investments made by the federal CHIPS and Science Act following the formal establishment of the NEMC Hub in September 2023.

“We are very excited for the recognition the program is receiving. It is growing quickly and the support will help us further dive into our mission to connect talented students to the broader microelectronics ecosystem while integrating our values of curiosity, openness, excellence, respect, and community,” says Preetha Kingsview, who manages the program. “This grant will help us connect to the broader community convened by NEMC Hub in close collaboration with MassTech. We are very excited for what this support will help NMIP achieve.”

The funds provided by the NEMC Microelectronics Commons Hub will help expand the program more broadly across the Northeast, to support students and grow the pool of skilled workers for the microelectronics sector regionally. After receiving 300 applications in the first two years, the program received 296 applications in 2024 from students interested in summer internships, and is working with more than 25 industry partners across the Northeast. These NMIP students not only participate in industry-focused summer internships, but are also exposed to the broader microelectronics ecosystem through bi-weekly field trips to microelectronics companies in the region.

“The expansion of the program across the Northeast, and potentially nationwide, will extend the impact of this program to reach more students and benefit more microelectronics companies across the region,” says Christine Nolan, acting NEMC Hub program director. “Through hands-on training opportunities we are able to showcase the amazing jobs that exist in this sector and to strengthen the pipeline of talented workers to support the mission of the NEMC Hub and the national CHIPs investments.”  

Sheila Wescott says her company, MACOM, a Lowell-based developer of semiconductor devices and components, is keenly interested in sourcing intern candidates from NMIP. “We already have a success story from this program,” she says. “One of our interns completed two summer programs with us and is continuing part time in the fall — and we anticipate him joining MACOM full time after graduation.”

“NMIP is an excellent platform to engage students with a diverse background and promote microelectronics technology,” says Bin Lu, CTO and co-founder of Finwave Semiconductor.  “Finwave has benefited from engaging with the young engineers who are passionate about working with electronics and cutting-edge semiconductor technology. We are committed to continuing to work with NMIP.”

A new set of advanced nanofabrication equipment will make MIT.nano one of the world’s most advanced research facilities in microelectronics and related technologies, unlocking new opportunities for experimentation and widening the path for promising inventions to become impactful new products.

The equipment, provided by Applied Materials, will significantly expand MIT.nano’s nanofabrication capabilities, making them compatible with wafers — thin, round slices of semiconductor material — up to 200 millimeters, or 8 inches, in diameter, a size widely used in industry. The new tools will allow researchers to prototype a vast array of new microelectronic devices using state-of-the-art materials and fabrication processes. At the same time, the 200-millimeter compatibility will support close collaboration with industry and enable innovations to be rapidly adopted by companies and mass produced.

MIT.nano’s leaders say the equipment, which will also be available to scientists outside of MIT, will dramatically enhance their facility’s capabilities, allowing experts in the region to more efficiently explore new approaches in “tough tech” sectors, including advanced electronics, next-generation batteries, renewable energies, optical computing, biological sensing, and a host of other areas — many likely yet to be imagined.

“The toolsets will provide an accelerative boost to our ability to launch new technologies that can then be given to the world at scale,” says MIT.nano Director Vladimir Bulović, who is also the Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technology. “MIT.nano is committed to its expansive mission — to build a better world. We provide toolsets and capabilities that, in the hands of brilliant researchers, can effectively move the world forward.”

The announcement comes as part of an agreement between MIT and Applied Materials, Inc. that, together with a grant to MIT from the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub, commits more than $40 million of estimated private and public investment to add advanced nano-fabrication equipment and capabilities at MIT.nano.

“We don’t believe there is another space in the United States that will offer the same kind of versatility, capability, and accessibility, with 8-inch toolsets integrated right next to more fundamental toolsets for research discoveries,” Bulović says. “It will create a seamless path to accelerate the pace of innovation.”

Pushing the boundaries of innovation

Applied Materials is the world’s largest supplier of equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, displays, and other advanced electronics. The company will provide at MIT.nano several state-of-the-art process tools capable of supporting 150- and 200-millimeter wafers and will enhance and upgrade an existing tool owned by MIT. In addition to assisting MIT.nano in the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the equipment, Applied Materials engineers will develop new process capabilities to benefit researchers and students from MIT and beyond.

“This investment will significantly accelerate the pace of innovation and discovery in microelectronics and microsystems,” says Tomás Palacios, director of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories and the Clarence J. Lebel Professor in Electrical Engineering. “It’s wonderful news for our community, wonderful news for the state, and, in my view, a tremendous step forward toward implementing the national vision for the future of innovation in microelectronics.”

Nanoscale research at universities is traditionally conducted on machines that are less compatible with industry, which makes academic innovations more difficult to turn into impactful, mass-produced products. Jorg Scholvin, associate director for MIT.nano’s shared fabrication facility, says the new machines, when combined with MIT.nano’s existing equipment, represent a step-change improvement in that area: Researchers will be able to take an industry-standard wafer and build their technology on top of it to prove to companies it works on existing devices, or to co-fabricate new ideas in close collaboration with industry partners.

“In the journey from an idea to a fully working device, the ability to begin on a small scale, figure out what you want to do, rapidly debug your designs, and then scale it up to an industry-scale wafer is critical,” Scholvin says. “It means a student can test out their idea on wafer-scale quickly and directly incorporate insights into their project so that their processes are scalable. Providing such proof-of-principle early on will accelerate the idea out of the academic environment, potentially reducing years of added effort. Other tools at MIT.nano can supplement work on the 200-millimeter wafer scale, but the higher throughput and higher precision of the Applied equipment will provide researchers with repeatability and accuracy that is unprecedented for academic research environments. Essentially what you have is a sharper, faster, more precise tool to do your work.”

Scholvin predicts the equipment will lead to exponential growth in research opportunities.

“I think a key benefit of these tools is they allow us to push the boundary of research in a variety of different ways that we can predict today,” Scholvin says. “But then there are also unpredictable benefits, which are hiding in the shadows waiting to be discovered by the creativity of the researchers at MIT. With each new application, more ideas and paths usually come to mind — so that over time, more and more opportunities are discovered.”

Because the equipment is available for use by people outside of the MIT community, including regional researchers, industry partners, nonprofit organizations, and local startups, they will also enable new collaborations.

“The tools themselves will be an incredible meeting place — a place that can, I think, transpose the best of our ideas in a much more effective way than before,” Bulović says. “I’m extremely excited about that.”

Palacios notes that while microelectronics is best known for work making transistors smaller to fit on microprocessors, it’s a vast field that enables virtually all the technology around us, from wireless communications and high-speed internet to energy management, personalized health care, and more.

He says he’s personally excited to use the new machines to do research around power electronics and semiconductors, including exploring promising new materials like gallium nitride, which could dramatically improve the efficiency of electronic devices.

Fulfilling a mission

MIT.nano’s leaders say a key driver of commercialization will be startups, both from MIT and beyond.

“This is not only going to help the MIT research community innovate faster, it’s also going to enable a new wave of entrepreneurship,” Palacios says. “We’re reducing the barriers for students, faculty, and other entrepreneurs to be able to take innovation and get it to market. That fits nicely with MIT’s mission of making the world a better place through technology. I cannot wait to see the amazing new inventions that our colleagues and students will come out with.”

Bulović says the announcement aligns with the mission laid out by MIT’s leaders at MIT.nano’s inception.

"We have the space in MIT.nano to accommodate these tools, we have the capabilities inside MIT.nano to manage their operation, and as a shared and open facility, we have methodologies by which we can welcome anyone from the region to use the tools,” Bulović says. “That is the vision MIT laid out as we were designing MIT.nano, and this announcement helps to fulfill that vision.”

It's OK to calm down about the economy. Yes, Friday's unemployment news was bad. Yes, the NASDAQ and Dow Jones neared correction territory on Friday morning. And yes, the Sahm Rule Recession Indicator has now been triggered. Odds are, though, a recession is not imminent. 

Here are three reasons why, in descending order of optimism. One, recent growth has been strong. Two, the economy has been near full employment for a while, and some kind of job growth slowdown is almost inevitable. Three, we're past the window where Federal Reserve actions can influence the election, though its recent behavior is still worrying.

Last week, the media's manic mood swing was on the exuberant side from news of a strong 2.8 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter of 2024, which ended on June 30. This was a surprise improvement on the previous quarter's 1.4 percent growth. A normal reading is around 2 percent. Better, most of that growth was in the private sector, especially in consumer spending and inventory investment.

The current quarter's GDP growth estimate will come out on October 30. It would take a drastic swing to move from 2.8 percent to negative in just one quarter, though it has happened before. It typically takes two consecutive quarters of negative growth for the National Bureau of Economic Research to declare a recession, though its official standard is to call it as they see it.

The unemployment rate went up from 4.1 percent in June to 4.3 percent in July. June's reading snapped a 30-month streak of unemployment at or under 4 percent. This was the longest such streak since the 1960s.

For context, anything under 5 percent is considered pretty good. The eurozone's unemployment rate is currently 6 percent and often tops 10 percent, even in good times.

When an economy is essentially at full employment, a slowdown in job growth isn't necessarily cause for worry. The economy still has 8 million job openings, and the labor force still grew by 114,000 jobs. That annualizes to more than a million more jobs per year. 

That is slower than population growth, which isn't ideal. The labor force participation rate is also still below prepandemic levels. But a sane immigration policy combined with labor reforms like loosening occupational licensing requirements would fill more of those job openings while creating more opportunities for workers who are still outside the labor force.

The Federal Reserve's recent actions spark some worry. The Fed has spent the last two-and-a-half years walking back its panicked overreaction to COVID-19, which caused high inflation in the first place, along with a bipartisan deficit spending explosion. Inflation is finally slowing and getting back close to its 2 percent target, down from its 9.2 percent peak.

The trouble is that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that the Fed will stop focusing solely on inflation and will now pay attention to the labor market as well. The Fed has a dual mandate that tasks it with both keeping inflation low and keeping employment high. These can contradict each other, as Powell might soon find out.

If unemployment continues to worsen, look for the Fed to counteract that with stimulus in the form of interest rate cuts and monetary expansion. The tradeoff to this stimulus is higher inflation—exactly what the Fed has been fighting.

While an expected interest rate cut in September isn't a big deal by itself, if it's the start of a larger stimulus campaign, any short-term economic boost will come at the cost of a slowdown later.

The Fed's actions have lag times ranging from about six months to 18 months, so anything it does now will not impact the election. This is good news for the Fed's independence, but it does not inspire faith in Powell's commitment to fighting inflation. It would be better for the Fed to stay focused on inflation. Monetary policy is a poor tool for job creation. Entrepreneurs have a much better track record.

As usual, the big picture is a mix of short-term pessimism and long-term optimism. Whether or not the current recession doommongering comes true, the long-term trend of increasing superabundance will hold. That's as good a reason for calm as any.

The post Recession Is Not Inevitable, Despite Stock Market Slump appeared first on Reason.com.

Source

Source

T-Mobile used to be the people's champ of carriers, with many happily overlooking its second-rate service for its user-first policies. But as the company continues building out its 5G service very successfully, to be fair it has gotten away from its "un-carrier" roots and made some questionable decisions. This week, it signaled that its clunky T-Mobile Tuesdays rebrand was a mistake by effectively killing off the brand-new T Life app, and now the carrier's beloved perks program has found a new home.

When the Mustang Mach-E first hit the streets at the end of 2021, people were so up in arms about its name that it felt like you couldn’t have a serious discussion about the vehicle itself. How dare Ford tarnish the legacy of its iconic pony car with *gasp* a crossover SUV?! And an all-electric one at that. But now that Ford has had a few years to refine the platform, it’s a great time to take another look at what is still the company’s most engaging EV to date.

What’s new for 2024

Ford has made several tweaks and adjustments to the Mach-E over the past few years, like streamlining the UI for its infotainment system, offering a wider range of colors and switching to LFP batteries (lithium ferrophosphate) for the standard range model and NCM (nickel, cobalt, manganese) for extended range trims. But for 2024, there are a few additional updates such as a new rear motor (which Ford says was developed in-house) that deliver a touch more torque and slightly faster charging speeds. The 72kWh standard range model can now go from 10 to 80 percent in 32 minutes or around 36 minutes for specs with the larger 91kWh extended range battery pack. That’s about six minutes faster compared to previous model year vehicles.

The Mach-E GT now also receives Ford’s MagneRide suspension tech as standard. This feature was only available on the top-spec GT Performance Edition, which now exists as a Performance upgrade package (and is what I reviewed here), instead of being a full standalone trim. It offers an extra 100 pound-feet of torque and improved tuning. This year, there are yet more color options headlined by Eruption green and Ford’s optional Bronze appearance pack (which you can see in photos of our loaner vehicle), alongside a brand new Rally model. It features some exclusive design touches including a larger rear spoiler and a bunch of tweaks for better off-road performance and handling.

Finally, earlier this spring, Ford announced that its EVs in the US can use Tesla’s Supercharging network and created a program that provides one free adapter to Mustang Mach-E and Ford 150 Lightning owners. (Envision a giant USB dongle that allows Ford’s CCS charging ports to use Tesla’s NACS plugs. Starting in 2025, new Mach-Es will come with an NACS plug from the factory.)

Design: A family-friendly muscle car for the EV age

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

One of the biggest issues Mustang die-hards have with the Mach-E is that it represents diametrically opposed objectives. Muscle cars are supposed to be simple, low-slung affairs that are big on power and light on weight (and often practicality). But this thing has two rows of usable seats, a large cargo area and a curb weight of between 4,400 and 5,000 pounds depending on the spec. That’s about 1,000 pounds heavier than an equivalent gas-powered Mustang.

Factor in that the Mach-E has a frunk where the engine ought to be and you’re basically looking at something that sits on the complete other end of the spectrum from where Mustang landed when it first hit the roads back in the 1960s. And often, when a product is being pulled in multiple directions, it ends up stuck in the middle.

But on the Mach-E, Ford has artfully balanced nods to previous Mustangs while embracing a more accommodating crossover EV design. The car’s long hood and vertical taillights give it an unmistakable familial resemblance while the clever use of black panels on its roof, below its doors and elsewhere make the crossover look sleeker than it actually is. (Admittedly, they’re hard to see on a black car like the one I tested, but check out some other colors to see what I mean.) And in an ever growing sea of vaguely teardrop-shaped EV SUVs, the Mach-E stands out as a striking homage to a classic.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Perhaps the most contentious aspect of the Mach-E’s design is its door handles, or lack thereof. Instead, you get a button mounted on the pillar behind each window. In front, there’s also a small tab nearby you can pull to open, while in back, Ford expects you to simply grab the inside of the door when climbing in, because that’s what people tend to do anyway. And Ford is right. Buttons are good and don’t need any explanation. Plus, they’re a lot simpler than handles that have to pop out just so you can yank on them. Even my toddler (who isn’t even three yet) can open the doors by himself. Plus, they still deliver on the original purpose of getting rid of handles to reduce drag. It seems Ferrari agrees, because the Italian supercar maker opted for a similar tabbed design (albeit without the button) for the rear doors on the new Purosangue.

Another nifty feature inspired by the cars of yesteryear is the numeric touch controls on the driver’s side door. Just like the buttons on old Explorers, you can create a PIN that lets you unlock the car with a handful of taps. This lets you hide your keys inside the car if you’re at the beach or going on a hike and don’t want to risk losing them in the wild. It’s a bit of simple tech mixed with basic practicality that I wish more carmakers would support.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That delicate blend between new and old continues inside as well. In the center of the dash is a large 15.5-inch touchscreen that controls most of the vehicle’s functions. But unlike other EV makers (most notably Tesla), Ford stopped short of making everything so streamlined that it's hard to use. At the bottom of the screen, the touch buttons for the heated seats and temperature are frozen in place, so they’re always easy to reach. And then smack in the middle is a big control wheel that adjusts dynamically to handle whatever you need. By default, it handles volume, but if you touch something like the fan button first, you can simply twist the dial to increase or decrease the speed. It’s a wonderful blend between digital and analog controls that means you’re never more than two gestures away from turning something off or setting it to full blast.

It's endearing that Ford is so committed to its transitional philosophy between new and old that in addition to a built-in wireless charger, the Mach-E has USB-A and USB-C jacks positioned side-by-side. Usually, automakers just pick one and stick with it, sometimes resulting in cars saddled with only Type-A slots.

Meanwhile, over on the driver’s side, Ford skews a bit more traditional, where controls for the blinkers and wipers are just stalks. It’s a tried and true setup that makes the Mach-E feel immediately familiar, which is not something all EVs can claim. There’s even an on/off button for the car, which almost feels quaint in a time when so many electric cars let you just walk up, put your foot on the brake and go. But as I said before, buttons are good, so unless you really feel like tapping one is a drag, I don’t see an issue with Ford’s approach.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

As for the rest of the interior, it’s easy to tell that the Mach-E was built with expertise. There’s a nice mix of premium textures (with very little piano black trim to call attention to fingerprints) and no cracks or loose ends to speak of. The cabin is also very quiet, with not even a hint of an EV’s usual faint electric motor whine (unless you’re really gunning it). Compared to the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Mach-E has a slightly higher seating position (as befits a proper SUV) and larger cargo area (29.7 cubic feet versus 27.2), with the trade-off being slightly less rear-seat legroom for passengers in the second row. That said, I’m six feet tall and there’s still plenty of room in the back for me. However, if you want to really maximize storage, Tesla’s Model Y beats out both with large cubby spaces throughout.

The one thing I wish Ford offered — even if it had been strictly an optional extra — is ventilated seats. It’s something you can get on other similarly priced rivals or even the F-150 Lightning. And as I was testing this during the peak of a heatwave, it would have been the cherry on top of an otherwise already solid interior.

Tech and infotainment: A big screen with a much-appreciated analog touch

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The Mach-E’s infotainment is powered by Ford’s Sync 4A system which is generally fine. You have all the basics for adjusting car settings, navigation and more. But most people are probably going to augment that with support for both wired and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which makes the whole setup feel much more complete. Pairing was a cinch and connecting was fast enough that generally by the time I got into the car and put my seatbelt on, Android Auto was ready to go. From the main screen, you get a big window for mapping and some smaller panes for music and recent apps. In the settings, you can adjust things like the propulsion sounds or one-pedal driving, the latter of which I think is tuned perfectly for the Mach-E. It offers plenty of deceleration when you lift off but not so much that your head jerks around if you let it slow all the way to a full stop.

Meanwhile, thanks to the FordPass app, you get some additional controls on your phone, though things are a bit spartan compared to rivals like Tesla. All the basics are there like being able to lock the car, roll down the windows and activate the climate control remotely. But there are a lot of little things it can’t do too.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

There’s no option to see the view from the Mach-E’s cameras on your phone like on a Model Y, and you can’t even adjust individual climate settings. You can either let the car pick a temperature or let it default to whatever it was the last time you were driving. However, one thing the Mach-E offers that a Model Y doesn’t is a top-down 360-degree camera. That thing is a lifesaver when you need to squeeze into a tight space while parallel parking and should be a standard feature on every new car. I just wish Ford’s execution was a touch more polished, as it applies little black outlines around the car that add the tiniest bit of guesswork.

You can also use your phone as a key, which is great for anyone who doesn’t want to carry Ford’s egg-shaped fob around. But I wish Ford would steal another page out of Tesla’s playbook and let you use the car’s sensors as a built-in dash cam. All the necessary equipment is already in place and there are plenty of USB ports for anyone who wants to plug in an external storage drive.

Unfortunately, there are still a few infotainment menus like the one for Sirius XM radio that take too long to appear. In 2024, I simply do not understand how a minimum $40,000 car has a screen that’s occasionally slower than a smartphone. And while Sync and Android Auto/CarPlay are usually quite responsive, there are a handful of situations where the display can’t keep up.

Performance: Pony power

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Mustang or not, with a 0 to 60 time of just 3.3 seconds for a GT with the Performance upgrade pack, the Mach-E is seriously quick. And even if you opt for a more affordable Premium model with dual motors and AWD, you’re still hitting 60 in 5.2 seconds, which is more than respectable.

However, the real star of the GT’s kit is its MagneRide damping system. It makes the car feel more confident and planted in the corners. The downside is that it makes the ride even firmer, which is great when you want to really push the pace while maintaining control. But around me, where the roads exist in a superposition of being either freshly paved or filled with so many potholes you might as well be driving on the moon, you will feel every bump just a bit more. Regardless, compared to the bouncier feel from the standard suspension in Mach-Es with Select and Premium trims, I’ll take that extra bit of sporty rigidity every time.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The Mach-E also offers a few different performance modes: Whisper, Engaged and Unbridled, which roughly translates to relaxed, sport and full power. In Whisper, which I used the most for driving around town, the car is relatively chilled out. There’s still a lot of performance to tap into, you just have to be a little more deliberate with your foot before it arrives. But that’s just fine when you're out getting groceries and don’t want to crack all your eggs before you get home. Engaged offers a good balance between speed and comfort, and Unbridled doesn’t need much explanation. At this point, most people know that EVs can deliver peak torque at all times unlike cars powered by internal combustion. So while classic Mustang fans might not like to admit it, in the real world, the Mach-E is every bit as quick as its gas-powered predecessors. There’s a sense that there’s always excess power waiting to be unleashed and it's absolutely exhilarating.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

On the flip side, when you don’t feel like driving, Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving tech is among the best in the business. Granted, it’s a bit more restricted than something like Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot as its only available on approved highways. But according to Ford, that covers over 130,000 miles of roads across North America, so it wasn’t hard to find somewhere I could use it. And when it’s activated, you can just sit back and let the car do the work, which is a true stress reliever when you’re stuck in highway traffic.

BlueCruise neatly stayed in the middle of the lane without needing to bounce between the lines. When you want to change lanes, you can simply flick the blinker stalk in the proper direction and let BlueCruise do the rest. I also appreciate that when it’s on, the entire screen on the driver’s side display turns blue, so there’s no confusion about what’s going on. Meanwhile, the small sensor bank behind the wheels monitors your eyes to ensure you’re still paying attention. And when BlueCruise needs to revert back to good ‘ole adaptive cruise control, that’s really obvious too.

Range and charging: Underpromise but over-deliver

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The Mach-E offers between 250 and 320 miles of range depending on the spec, with the GT falling in the middle with 280 miles of juice. (Note: all GTs come standard with AWD and Ford’s extended range battery pack). Those figures are more than solid and pretty much the same as a Tesla Model Y (Ford’s long-range RWD model can hit 320 miles per charge, while the Model Y Performance delivers 279 miles).

However, I noticed that Ford’s in-car range estimates are on the more conservative side, but in a good way. It feels like the Mach-E engineers were living by the mantra of underpromising and over-delivering. That’s because unlike every Tesla I’ve driven — which often served up overly optimistic calculations before updating to more realistic estimates halfway through the trip — what you see on the Mach-E’s display is pretty much what you get. And especially for first-time EV buyers who might be suffering from range anxiety, this predictability makes for more confidence on longer journeys.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

On the other hand, perhaps the Mach-E’s biggest weakness is its charging time, which lags behind almost all of its rivals even with the six-minute decrease for 2024 models. This is because it maxes out with 150kW DC fast charging compared to 250kW for a Model Y or 350kW on a Hyundai Ioniq 5. Granted, if you have the luxury of being able to install a charger in your garage, that difference might not be a big deal. But for those who regularly need to charge mid-trip, you’re looking at between 10 and 15 minutes of extra time spent plugged in compared to its rivals. So while it’s not a deal breaker, faster DC charging would be the biggest upgrade Ford could add to the Mach-E.

Still, even for me, who lives in the city and can’t charge in my building or the lot I rent when testing cars, it’s not that bad. There are at least six public chargers within a five-block radius, all of which are significantly closer than the nearest gas station. This makes it easy to recharge the car when needed, which probably won’t be very often unless you have a major commute thanks to the Mach-E’s above-average range.

Wrap-up

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

So is the Mach-E a real Mustang? Ford certainly believes so because almost every badge on the outside of the car is a Mustang logo instead of the classic blue oval. However, methinks the lady doth protest too much. I suspect Ford will never admit to attaching the Mustang name to the Mach-E in hopes of attracting buyers to its first mainstream EV. (I’m not counting the electric Ranger from the 90s.) But you know what? The Mach-E is a great name for a car in its own right and it represents an incredibly thoughtful marriage of Ford’s legacy with forward-thinking design. (Though if we’re borrowing inspiration from the past, I kind of wish Ford had revived the Thunderbird name instead).

Sure, it’s not quite as techy as a Model Y and I hope Ford will incorporate some of Tesla’s more advanced features into future vehicles (a UWB-based car key would be really nice too). But at the same time, the Mach-E is welcoming to all sorts of drivers, including folks who may have never driven an EV, while also delivering tight handling and spirited performance. And unlike an old-fashioned Mustang, its size and two full rows of seats means the whole family can enjoy it.

VIAVI Solutions, a global provider of communications test and measurement and optical technologies, has joined the MIT.nano Consortium.

With roots going back to 1923 as Wandell and Goltermann and to 1948 as Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., VIAVI is a global enterprise supporting innovation in communication networks, hyperscale and enterprise data centers, consumer electronics, automotive sensing, mission-critical avionics, aerospace, and anti-counterfeiting technologies.

“VIAVI is an exciting new member of the MIT.nano Consortium. The company’s innovations overlap with MIT’s research interests in a variety of applications — electronics, 3D sensing, optics, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more,” says Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor of Emerging Technologies. “VIAVI’s awareness of industry needs will make them a valuable collaborator as we at MIT.nano work to develop new technologies in the lab that can successfully transition to the real world.”

With over 3,600 employees in 22 countries, VIAVI is poised to contribute global insights to the MIT.nano Consortium and MIT research community.

“VIAVI is delighted to be part of the extraordinary MIT.nano ecosystem,” says Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO of VIAVI. “MIT.nano occupies a unique position at the intersection of academia, industry, and government. We look forward to collaborating with the organization and its stakeholders focused on innovation in materials and processes that will enable the photonics applications of the future.”

The MIT.nano Consortium is a platform for academia-industry collaboration centered around research and innovation emerging from nanoscale science and engineering at MIT. Through activities that include quarterly industry consortium meetings, VIAVI will gain insight into the work of MIT.nano’s community of users and provide advice to help guide and advance nanoscale innovations at MIT alongside the 11 other consortium companies:

• Analog Devices
• Edwards
• Fujikura
• IBM Research
• Lam Research
• Lockheed Martin
• NC
• NEC
• Raith
• Shell
• UpNano

MIT.nano continues to welcome new companies as sustaining members. For more details, visit the MIT.nano Consortium page.

“I want to tell you that you don’t have to be just one thing,” said Katie Eckermann ’03, MEng ’04, director of business development at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) at a networking event for students considering careers in hard technologies. “There is a huge wealth of different jobs and roles within the semiconductor industry.”

Eckermann was one of two keynote speakers at the Design the Solution conference, presented by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Women’s Leadership Initiative, and co-sponsored by MIT.nano. Following the speaking portion of the event, attendees were invited to meet with representatives from AMD, Analog Devices, Applied Materials, Arm, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, Intel, Marvell, Micron Technology, Samsung, Synopsys, and TSMC. This annual February event was one in a series organized by the GSA Women’s Leadership Initiative and hosted at universities across the country to highlight the global impact of a career in semiconductors and recruit more women into the hard-tech ecosystem.

Eckermann was joined by John Wuu ’96, MEng ’97, senior fellow design engineer at AMD. Together, the two highlighted some of the key trends and most significant challenges of the semiconductor industry, as well as shared their career paths and advice.

Wuu highlighted the tremendous increase in computing performance in recent years, illustrated in 2022 by Hewlett Packard’s Frontier computer — calculating complex problems much faster than several other supercomputers combined. While supercomputer performance has doubled every 1.2 years over the last 30 years, power efficiency has doubled only every 2.2 years — thus underscoring a clear need to continue the pace of performance sustainably and responsibly.

“These performance improvements are not about trying to break records just for the sake of breaking records,” said Wuu. “The demand for computing is very high and insatiable, and the improvements in performance that we’re getting are being used to solve some of humanity’s most challenging and important problems — from space exploration to climate change, and more.”

Both Wuu and Eckermann encouraged students pursuing careers in semiconductors to focus on learning and stretching themselves, taking risks, and growing their network. They also emphasized the many different skill sets needed in the semiconductor industry and the common problems that often exist across different market segments.

“One of the most valuable things about MIT is that it doesn’t teach you how to recite formulas or to memorize facts, it teaches you a framework on how to think,” said Eckermann. “And when it comes down to engineering, it’s all about solving complex problems.”

Following the keynote, Deb Dyson, senior staff engineering manager at Marvell, moderated a panel discussion featuring Rose Castanares, senior vice president for business management at TSMC North America; Kate Shamberger, field technical director for the Americas at Analog Devices; and Thy Tran, vice president of global frontend procurement at Micron Technology.

The panelists described their own individual and diverse career journeys, also emphasizing the tremendous amount and variety of opportunities currently available in semiconductors.

“Everywhere you look [in the semiconductor industry], it is the epicenter of all the intersectionality of the disciplines,” said Tran. “It’s the pure sciences, the math, the engineering, application-based, theory-based — I can’t believe I got so lucky to be in this arena.”

Some key themes of the panel discussion included the importance of teamwork and understanding the people you’re working with, the development of leadership styles, and trying out different types of roles within the industry. All speakers encouraged students to identify what they like to do most and think broadly and flexibly about how they can apply their skills and interests — and, above all, to always be learning and gaining a breadth of knowledge.

“It’s important to be continually learning — not just in your field, but also adjunct to your field,” said Castanares. “It’s not about trying to prove that you’re the smartest person in the room, but the most curious person in the room — and then apply and share that knowledge.”