Microsystems Packaging Research Center (PRC)

Innovative Education Programs in Microsystems Packaging

The microsystems packaging (MSP) industry, which spans from integrated circuits (ICs) to end-product systems such as cell phones, is as big as the IC industry itself, with a global market in excess of $150B. Despite its market size, MSP has not become an academic subject. The reasons include the highly multidisciplinary nature of the subject and the lack of faculty prepared to teach such breadth. Most universities teach one or two MSP courses. As a result, the industry's human resource needs remain unfulfilled and companies typically recruit single-discipline engineers or scientists and train them on the job-that is, until Georgia Tech's Packaging Research Center (PRC) changed things.

Over the past 10 years the PRC has developed new and unparalleled curricula at the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. levels. There are more than 20 new courses, involving more than 700 students annually, and a new technical track called Microsystems: Devices, Integration and Packaging. Furthermore, these programs have led to the first fundamental undergraduate textbook and the first entrepreneurial Practice Oriented Masters (POM) program with an emphasis on technology, business and leadership skills, to prepare future leaders for managing emerging technology companies.

The PRC is now the largest producer of the most sought-after microsystems packaging engineers, producing more than half of all new MSP specialist engineers in the U.S. The Center has graduated over 500 students who now work in R&D, manufacturing, or marketing. Industry has given outstanding feedback regarding the quality of students and how quickly they "hit the ground running."

The impact of PRC educational programs extends beyond Georgia Tech. The Center extended MSP education to minority and female undergraduates from other universities through an 8-week summer research experience. The Center also established extensive partnerships with the two large professional societies, IEEE and IMAPS, to develop 15 new web-based courses in different strategic technologies for use by the world community. It created International Academic and Technical Conferences and Workshops to extend and disseminate its research and educational programs. One example of the impact of these workshops has been the use of PRC's undergraduate textbook at 47 universities around the world.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the Packaging Research Center academics page at http://www.prc.gatech.edu/academics/academics.htm

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Undergraduate textbook by Prof. Rao R.
Tummala, Fundamentals of Microsystems
Packaging..

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Last modified: February 2, 2005