John – NanoFab at "TechTopia"
The Nanofabrication Facility and ECE's Demis John participate in "TechTopia" an innovation and research event that combines industry, UCSB labs, and South Coast companies along with local students and career opportunities
Excerpt from the Noozhawk article "TechTopia Shows Off Innovation and Research of Industry, UCSB Labs"
Walking through UC Santa Barbara’s campus, one wouldn’t realize that inside the very buildings they pass by, students and entrepreneurs are inside labs making diamonds and microchips and analyzing data inside a digital microscope.
On Thursday, dozens of people toured the AlloSphere, CNSI Innovation Lab, Quantum Foundry and the Nanofabrication Facility (Nanofab) at UCSB as part of TechTopia, an event hosted by the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce.
The event highlighted the South Coast’s technology and manufacturing industries and how they connect with local students for career opportunities.
The tour started in the Nanofabrication Facility, better known as NanoFab, which gives startups, big businesses and innovators a space to make microchips for any product they need.
Demis John, process scientist manager of the Nanofab explained that once you learn how to make one microchip, you can make any kind of microchip, with the right equipment. The lab has more than $60 million in equipment and is funded by the hourly fee that users pay to work in the lab.
After the tour of the labs, groups were invited to hear from Ben Werner, the chamber’s workforce development program lead, about efforts to connect education to industry. Werner said their industry internship program helped build the bridge between companies and students wanting to learn about local industries,
“I would argue that there’s a strong correlation between the performance, the success, the resilience, the agility of the company, and the culture of the company in terms of its deep integration of teaching and learning,” Werner said. “I would argue that the presence of an internship program is a good litmus test for that culture.”
Angel Farlas Hidalgo said his internship at PseudolithIC gave him a chance to learn and excel in new skills and experience working in an industry than he would have gotten in a classroom.
“It’s just nice to know that I don’t have to leave where I live to be able to find a nice job that I will enjoy every single day,” Hidalgo said.
Noozhawk "TechTopia Shows Off Innovation and Research of Industry, UCSB Labs" (full article)
