Chips and Higher Ed: What the Federal Investment Means for Colleges

Chapters

01:11 - The CHIPS Act in Context

04:07 - Higher Ed Impacts Across Degree Levels

06:00 - Inclusive Economic Development

11:57 - The Micron-CWI Partnership

14:07 - Impacts Across Industries and Around the World

19:13 - Historical Parallels

Transcript

Jeff Selingo:

Hi there, Future U listeners. Jeff Selingo here along with Michael Horn. And if you're a longtime listener of Future U, we're here to tell you that we're going to try something a bit different with today's episode. There won't be a full length interview followed by a back and forth with me and Michael.

Michael Horn:

Rather, it's more Planet Money like if you know of that podcast as we try to explain a significant new federal investment in microchips and what it specifically means for higher ed and workforce development. We hope you enjoy this show.

Sponsor:

This episode of Future U is sponsored by Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit organization committed to helping learners from low income backgrounds reach their education and career goals. For more information, visit ascendiumphilanthropy.org subscribe to FutureU wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoy the show, send it along to a friend so others can discover the conversations we're having about higher education.

Michael Horn:

I'm Michael Horn.

The CHIPS Act in Context 

Jeff Selingo:

And I'm Jeff Selingo. So, Michael, we had to buy a new car during the pandemic. And it was supposed to have, you know, all the bells and whistles you'd expect on a new vehicle these days, including wireless charging. But you know what? That wireless charger doesn't work. And that's by design. They didn't want the entire car sitting in the factory while they waited for that single microchip to power that small little charger in the center console.

Michael Horn:

And Jeff, as you know, those microchips or semiconductors, they power everything these days, from cars to dishwashers to the mobile phones that we hold in our hands, basically anything with an on, off switch. And during the pandemic, we couldn't get enough of them. And that's because a majority of the world's chips are manufactured in Taiwan and South Korea.

Jeff Selingo:

And this led to a Sputnik moment in the US during the pandemic. You know, when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 in 1957. Of course, Michael, neither of us were alive. But the world's first artificial satellite transformed industrial policy in the US and higher ed policy, too. 

Sputnik Report:

Today, a new moon is in the sky. A 23 inch metal sphere placed an orbit by a Russian rocket. You are hearing the actual signals, transmitted by the earth-circling satellite. One of the great scientific feats of the age.

Jeff Selingo:

Americans felt threatened by Soviet know how. And in the following months and years, Congress supported a flurry of federal spending that helped to greatly expand the number of American research universities and scientists.

Michael Horn:

And it obviously fueled the rise of microchips in unexpected ways. But get this, Jeff. The NSF budget doubled in the first year alone after Sputnik, and all the federal support for academic research quadrupled in seven years.

Jeff Selingo:

Of course, we know where all that led. Over the next 30 plus years, we went to the moon, Silicon Valley grew into a hub of tech innovation. There was further development of Route 128 near you in Boston, Michael, and also in Research Triangle park in North Carolina. It was a golden age for R&D.

Michael Horn:

So to bring us now back to the current day, the Sputnik moment during the pandemic was the perceived lack of microchips. And that sparked broader worries about U.S. competitiveness. Given that most of these basic building blocks are produced elsewhere, it highlighted both our economic vulnerability and national security risks in an uncertain geopolitical landscape.

Jeff Selingo:

Yeah, that's right. Although semiconductors were invented in the US, manufacturing has largely shifted overseas. Only about 10% of the world's semiconductors are currently made in the United States.

Higher Ed Impacts Across Degree Levels

Michael Horn:

Now, in 2022, there's this bipartisan effort in Congress to pass what's called the CHIPS and Science Act, which invests some 280 billion, billion with a B dollars, to bolster capacity of US made semiconductors, catalyze R&D and commercialize leading technologies.

Shalin Jyotishi:

And these activities in turn create a massive demand for a skilled workforce, PhD level talent engineers and technologists, but also manufacturing technicians and beyond. So this is relevant to all of higher ed.

Jeff Selingo:

That was Shalin Jyotishi, Founder and Managing Director of the Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative at New America.

Shalin Jyotishi:

So the same lab to market processes that made America and not other places home to the invention of the Internet, GPS technologies, places like Silicon Valley and companies like Google and Amazon, we now want to apply with a little bit more intentionality to build the innovation economy around these future forward industries. So when it comes to the higher ed role, there is something here for community colleges, research universities, regional public institutions, and all in between in both the mission pillars of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Michael Horn:

So two things Shalin said there that are important to repeat. One is that although chips is part of the name, this law wasn't just about intervening in the chips industry. It was about, as Shalin put it, future forward industries. Also, that includes sectors such as auto manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, clean energy generation, and digital services.

Inclusive Economic Development

Jeff Selingo:

Second, Shalin said that when it comes to higher ed, there's something for everyone, and indeed not just for higher ed. As the Brookings Institute said in a paper earlier this year, the CHIPS Act is underappreciated for being a source of training for the nation's skilled technical workers.

Michael Horn:

Within the next decade, the US wants to produce some 30% of the global supply of chips. To get there, the Fed started by committing money to 15 chip making companies in more than two dozen states. The hope is that some 115,000 jobs will be created directly in construction and manufacturing of chips alone.

Jeff Selingo:

Filling those jobs will require workers with significant training. Recently, I was at the White House when President Biden was on a victory lap of sorts about the CHIPS Act before he leaves office. Afterwards, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told the crowd why it was so important that the federal dollars given to the chips companies were accompanied by a mandate for workforce development. 

Gina Raimondo:

So we have to make sure that Americans of all, you know, shapes, sizes, colors and zip codes and educational attainment have a chance to get those jobs. And that's why I insisted that in every single grant we give, a component is for workforce. We insisted that about $60 million be put into the workforce.

Jeff Selingo:

One thing we know about the economy of the last three decades is that it hasn't been evenly distributed across the US, I see this each time I return to my hometown in northeastern Pennsylvania, which was hollowed out by industrial decline and is now full of empty factories and vacant storefronts.

Shalin Jyotishi:

In the 20th century, we didn't care who got to bear the fruits of the innovation economy, only that we had it. So we won the Cold War, we got Silicon Valley, we invented the Internet. But the fruits of those inventions were concentrated in areas like Silicon Valley, the Boston corridor.

Jeff Selingo:

That was Shalin, again, the Managing Director of the Future of Work in Innovation Economy Initiative at New America.

Shalin Jyotishi:

A key objective of the CHIPS and Science Act is to uplift communities that were perhaps left behind in the digitization journey of the 20th century and create tech hubs in parts of the nation that haven't historically had them. 

Michael Horn:

The CHIPS act created the first new arm at the National Science foundation in more than 30 years.

Shalin Jyotishi:

At the heart of that expanded mission is the Regional Innovation Engines Program, a signature program of this new technology directorate at NSF and the science part of the CHIPS and Science Act. So NSF engines provide up to 10 years of funding to a one of a kind regional consortia uniting R1 and R2, research universities, industry, community colleges, economic development organizations, states, labor, and a myriad of other community organizations. And the goal of these consortia are to band together to advance applied R&D technology development and workforce development to make their region a global leader in one of the 10 emerging technology areas that were enshrined in the CHIPS Act. So you can think about it as these regions receiving NSF investments as having the right ingredients to be a global leader in a new sector and getting NSF resources to combine those ingredients into a recipe. 

Jeff Selingo: 

In October, the National Science Foundation announced that 71 teams spanning nearly every state and territory in the US are advancing to the next stage of the second ever competition for the regional innovation engines program that will eventually award a $160,000,000. These teams knit together companies, nonprofits, governments, and of course, higher education. The teams include 1 in Maryland, for example, led by the University of Maryland around quantum science and neurotech. Another is in Tennessee led by the University of Tennessee for bio based manufacturing. That's essentially taking underutilized land to grow crops that can be used in manufacturing automotive parts or construction materials. As Shailen told us, the hope is that some of these efforts will hit, and one day, the new Silicon Valley will be in Tennessee or the new route 128 in Maryland perhaps. 

Michael Horn:

When we come back after this quick break, we're going to take you to a region that's poised to benefit from the CHIPS Act: Idaho. 

This episode of Future U is sponsored by Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit organization committed to helping learners from low income backgrounds reach their education and career goals. Ascendium believes that system level change and a student centric approach are important for our nation's efforts to boost post-secondary education and workforce training opportunities. That's why their philanthropy aims to remove systemic barriers faced by these learners, specifically first generation students, incarcerated adults, veterans, students of color, adult learners, and rural community members. For more information, visit ascendiumphilanthropy.org.

The Micron-CWI Partnership

Jeff Selingo:

This fall, Michael and I went to Boise to visit the College of Western Idaho, known locally as CWI. CWI is young. It's only in its 15th academic year as an institution. It's big. It enrolls 31,000 students serving 10 counties with career technical education, many of them in rural Idaho.

Michael Horn:

Boise is also known for being the home of Micron, one of the manufacturers that's getting a huge chunk of that federal money from the CHIPS Act. Micron, of course, began in 1978 as a semiconductor design company in the basement of a Boise dental office, and by the early 1980s it was making microchips in Boise.

Jeff Selingo:

Although it stopped making microchips in 2009, Micron still has a huge R&D facility in Idaho. It's now also building a manufacturing plant too, which is expected to start producing chips again in 2026. But the influence of Micron and Boise goes well beyond this new factory. That sound you hear is of mini conveyor belts moving tiny jewelry-like boxes. It's a kid sized model of the full size conveyor belts you'd see in a warehouse. This model is one of several at CWI's Mechatronics Lab, and it houses the college's Advanced Mechatronics Engineering Technology program.

Robert Novak:

So what you see here is indicative of what you'll find in any automated manufacturing plant. Maybe in this case we're moving boxes, right? Like Amazon. So Amazon loves this machine, but the mechanisms are the same for making cheese, making applesauce over at Go Go squeeze all of that scale.

Michael Horn:

Slightly different.

Robert Novak:

Yeah. And this machine kind of encompasses everything that we teach in the program.

Michael Horn:

That's Robert Novak, who leads the mechatronics program at CWI, mechatronics is what allows modern society to function. The word itself is a blend of mechanical engineering and electronics. And it brings together multiple disciplines to design and build mechanized system in warehouses such as Amazon or factories including Micron.

Impacts Across Industries and Around the World

Jeff Selingo:

It's a critical skill to develop in order to achieve the goals of the CHIPS act. We asked Robert how he got interested in this field and more importantly, how he's going to get the next generation interested.

Robert Novak:

I spent four years in high school in general math and I couldn't graduate high school. I mean, I was struggling, right? I went to work for McDonald's for my last year of high school and got credit. Work-based credit.

Michael Horn:

Robert tells his story to potential career switchers and goes into high schools to talk with teenagers.

Robert Novak:

And that gets a lot of attention because there's a lot of students that struggle with math and struggle with just learning in general, you know, from the traditional way they learn in high school and even in the four year universities. And, and then I start showing them my career. I have a PowerPoint that just goes through this, this career that I had that started with a little two year trade school. And I tell them that they're fortunate enough to be in an age where you can do this in a community college now, right, and get an associate's degree and then get out in the workforce sooner and then decide what you want to do. Okay, do I want to be a mechanical engineer, do I want to be electrical engineer? And so I think it's just that idea of getting into a college that's going to not just give them book learning.

Jeff Selingo:

In 2022, soon after Micron announced an expansion in Boise on the heels of the CHIPS Act, CWI became a core education partner.

Michael Horn:

Robert Novak is key to that partnership between CWI and Micron. This, of course, is how higher ed and corporate partnerships should work. But often what happens in these partnerships is unintended. An important link like a Robert Novak might get hired away from the corporate partner and the whole thing falls apart.

Gordon Jones:

I've made clear to Micron the worst thing you could ever do is hire Robert at Micron.

Michael Horn:

That's Gordon Jones, CWI's president.

Gordon Jones:

He's already serving you in ways that will pay dividends to the thousands of technicians and others. And I also know Robert hopefully feels rewarded and respected and appreciated here at CWI. Robert's hosting faculty from other parts of the country, in particular the Syracuse area, where Micron has additional and significant expansion, trying to both help their faculty, their version of Robert Novak, make sure we're leveled up and skilled up and that we're also synchronized in service to Micron. Micron works globally. We may be local, but we want to be aware that our partner works globally.

Jeff Selingo: 

Gordon mentioned Syracuse. That's where Micron is building a new plan and where officials from SUNY's Oswego campus and Onondaga Community College have visited with Robert Novak and CWI to learn more about how to modernize their curriculum. Indeed, Micron knows this is going to be a huge lift for education and training in upstate New York, where it expects 9,000 direct jobs to be created when its plan opens. At that White House event I mentioned earlier, I met Sarah Newton Clips, director of strategic workforce programs at Micron. And she told a group that was gathered that Micron considers its workforce training a k through career effort. It's partnered with 10 school districts in New York State alone to boost STEM education and promote careers in the chips field. But the chips act doesn't just require upskilling and reskilling in that one field. CWI is also aware of Micron's far reach into the local employment market has ripple effects, and that as a major college in the area, it has to be ready. When Micron starts staffing up for its factory that will open in 2026, it might hire people from other industries in the Boise area, and they will have their own training needs as a result. Molly Lenty is chair of CWI's board of trustees. 

Molly Lenty:

So when I think about a super project like the one that we're seeing with Micron here in Boise, and we're so excited to be partnering with them and the opportunity that this is going to provide to so many people to become upskilled and to learn a new trade and to really have a successful career ahead of them. We're so excited to be a part of that partnership and a part of that pathway. But there is that need to look at that ripple effect. The business community has come together and said, okay, how can we get ahead of this? We know that a lot of the workers that are going to be upskilled into this new FAB project are coming from existing businesses. How do we help those businesses to either backfill those positions or partner with our college to find ways to not just upskill the workers going into the FAB, but upskill and equip the business owners so that they can learn to bring in more automation or more technology that's going to help them be able to operate and create the much needed products that they're creating.

Historical Parallels 

Michael Horn:

There's a fascinating parallel between today's CHIPS Act and earlier moments in American history, when government, industry, and higher education came together to solve major challenges.

Jeff Selingo:

Just as the Land Grant Act transformed agriculture and the space race revolutionized science education, we're seeing community colleges step up to play a pivotal role in reshaping American manufacturing and technology.

Michael Horn:

What's unique about what we saw in Boise is how the traditional walls between education and industry are coming down. Community colleges aren't just training workers. They're true partners in economic development. They're creating programs that adapt in real time to industry needs while making these opportunities visible and accessible to both traditional students and career changers.

Jeff Selingo:

As the semiconductor industry expands into places like upstate New York, where Micron is also building a factory, and Ohio, the lessons from Boise show us that success requires more than just building factories. It needs an ecosystem where community colleges, four year universities, industry and local governments work together to build not just a workforce, but a sustainable pipeline of talent that can power these new technological hubs for decades to come. I'm Jeff Selingo.

Michael Horn:

And I'm Michael Horn. That was Future U for this week. Thanks for listening.