Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber Magazine 2022-2023 - 41

"
If we can provide locals a way into
lucrative and exciting high-tech
jobs, it benefits us all-residents, their
families and children, along with
upholding local employers as worldclass
cutting-edge innovators. "
DEMIS D. JOHN, PhD
UCSB Nanofabrication Facility
products they make are pricey!
Since each of our manufacturers
makes a unique, specialized
product, they must perform their
own internal
training-there is
This page, clockwise from top right: The California Nanosciences Institute
(CNSI), runs the Quantum Structures cleanroom that Demis D. John, pictured,
leveraged to create a local cleanroom training class. A local technician runs
a plasma deposition tool, following the written instructions. An enclosed
chamber for safely applying chemicals to semiconductor wafers. Cuttingedge
microchip fabrication requires advanced tools, such as this Panasonic
ICP Plasma etcher.
Opposite page, top to bottom: Dr. John inspects a defect on a
semiconductor wafer. Middle: The Nanofab is open-access, hosting
graduate students and industry employees; above: lab users perform
microscope inspection; below: racks of cleanroom " bunny suits " provided to
lab users.
no general training for cuttingedge
devices that nobody else
makes. Consequently, a potential
hire mainly needs to show
that they have mechanical aptitude,
are teachable, and can
work with the team. Excitement
and enjoyment of technology is
a huge plus since that leads to
perseverance. People with local
roots and family are the perfect
candidates, as the company's
risk of turnover due to housing
prices is considerably lower.
The missing links in our region
are twofold: (1) resident's knowledge
and visibility for our community's
outsized impact on
the high-tech world, and (2) a
minimal hands-on " experience "
or course that demonstrates a
student's engagement, excitement,
and aptitude for handson
technical work. It is not difficult
to get 8th graders excited
about the incredibly high-tech
contributions made
by
the
Central Coast. In fact, UC Santa
Barbara's Center
for Science
and Engineering Partnerships
has a long history of bringing
cutting-edge science education
to local schools.
Addressing the minimal viable
training, me and my colleagues
at Santa Barbara City College
and UC Santa Barbara recently
launched a " cleanroom training "
course of only 40 hours (2 weeks
of half days), leveraging existing
successful programs from Univ.
New Mexico (Prof. Matt Pleil) and
Penn State Univ. (Prof. Zachary
Gray) and bootstrapped by the
National Science Foundation.
The training is scalable to other
community colleges and has
already been used to upskill
local employees who had no
prior experience with this type
of manufacturing, agnostic to
their educational background.
We're lowering the barriers to
entry and increasing the number
of options available to Central
Coast residents of all types and
backgrounds.
2 0 2 3 EDITION 41
Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber Magazine 2022-2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber Magazine 2022-2023
