UPWARDS Workshop in Semiconductor and IC

For VT undergraduates, VT provides an annual one-week-long IC workshop, including "clean room visit", "AI chip", "Memory technology, memistor, and stt-mram", "FPGA design", and "CAD/EDA tool introduction".

UPWARDS Workshop 2026 for VT Freshman

The UPWARDS Workshop was successfully held from April 6 to April 10, 2026, with five sessions delivered in a hybrid format with a total of 215 accumulated participants. The workshop series was designed to include key areas of semiconductor and integrated circuit (IC) design. Flyer is accessible here.

Session 1: Mixed-Signal IC Design on Apr. 6th. This session introduced the fundamentals of mixed-signal circuit design, including ADC/DAC architecture and phase-locked loops (PLL). Participants gained insight into the interaction between analog and digital components in the integrated systems.

Session 2: Memory Design on Apr. 7th. This session focused on memory architecture and operation, covering key design principles of SRAM and DRAM. It also introduced in-memory computing concepts, highlighting emerging approaches for improving computational efficiency.

Session 3: Clearnroom Session I on Apr. 8th. These sessions provided an overview of cleanroom environments and semiconductor fabrication processes. Participants were introduced to fabrication workflow and equipment commonly used in IC manufacturing.

Session 4: "Cleanroom Session II" on Apr. 9th.

Session 5: "EDA Tools for IC Design" on Apr. 10th. This session introduced industry-standard Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools, including schematic design, simulation, and layout. Participants explored how these tools support the complete IC design flow from concept to verification.

UPWARDS Workshop 2025 for VT Freshman

The second workshop was successfully held from Feb. 9th to Feb. 26th. Professors and students from Virginia Tech provided new undergraduate students with diverse, engaging, and hands-on seminars.

On February 9th, students from UPWARDS@VT introduced the IC Workshop 2025 event to the newly arrived Virginia Tech students. A large number of undergraduate students attended this introduction.

"Clean Room & Emerging Memory Technologies" on Feb. 17th.

"AI & Machine Learning with Neuromorphic Computing" on Feb. 18th.

"Field Programmable Gate Array" on Feb. 19th.

"EDA Tools for IC Design" on Feb. 20th.

"Introduction to ASIC" on Feb. 21st.

UPWARDS Workshop 2024 for VT Freshman

The first event of UPWARDS clean room visit was held on March 4th by Mr. Donald Leber. Students from Virginia Tech were given an insightful walkthrough of the clean room facilities, including demonstrations of the equipment and training on its use.

On Mar. 19th, Dr.Yi and students in UPWARDS@VT gave an introduction of the coming IC workshop to the freshman. There will be 5 sections: "Artificial Intelligence Chips", "Clean Room Visit", "Memory, Memristor, STT-RAM", "Field Programmable Gate Array", and "Computer-Aided Design/ Electronic Design Automation Tools".