Integrated circuits have officially become a first-level discipline. Can the 200,000 talent gap be filled?

  In order to cultivate innovative talents and solve the "stuck neck" problem that restricts the development of my country's integrated circuit industry, my country has officially established integrated circuits as a first-level discipline.

  The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the Ministry of Education issued a notice a few days ago to clarify the establishment of the "interdisciplinary" category, and the establishment of the "Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering" and "National Security" first-level disciplines under this category.

"Interdisciplinary" has also become my country's 14th discipline category.

  When answering a reporter’s question, the person in charge of the Academic Degrees Committee Office of the State Council said that with the new round of scientific and technological revolution and the accelerated evolution of industrial transformation, some important scientific issues and key core technologies have shown signs of revolutionary breakthroughs, new disciplines and new growth. With the continuous emergence of new disciplines, the in-depth interdisciplinary integration is unstoppable, and economic and social development has an even more urgent need for high-level innovative, compound and applied talents.

  Li Ke, vice president of CCID Consulting, said in an interview with a reporter from China Business News that China, as the world’s largest integrated circuit application market, has great advantages in application innovation, but there has always been a gap between basic research and original innovation. The fundamental reason for the "stuck neck" is that integrated circuits have been upgraded to a first-level discipline, which will play a role in promoting the convergence of scientific research resources in the field of integrated circuits.

  What is the significance of first-level disciplines?

  With the popularization of smart phones, mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, and mobile communications, integrated circuits have evolved from a simple technical method of miniaturization of circuits to the core of all information technology industries today, and have become the support of the country’s economic and social development. Strategic, basic and leading industries to ensure national security.

  At present, my country's integrated circuit industry continues to maintain rapid growth, technological innovation capabilities continue to improve, and industrial development support capabilities have significantly improved. However, there are still problems such as weak core product innovation capabilities and overall low-end products.

  "The decision to establish the first-level discipline of'Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering' is to build an innovative talent training system that supports the rapid development of the integrated circuit industry, and cultivate innovative talents that meet the urgent needs of industrial development in terms of quantity and quality. Fundamentally solve the "stuck neck" problem that restricts the development of my country's integrated circuit industry and provide strong talent support." said the official of the Office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council.

  As early as 2015, the Ministry of Education and other six departments jointly researched and decided to support a group of universities to build exemplary microelectronic colleges or prepare to build exemplary microelectronic colleges, and accelerate the cultivation of engineering talents urgently needed by the integrated circuit industry.

  Currently, there are 28 National Demonstrative Microelectronics Colleges.

At the same time, the "Policies for Promoting the High-quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry and Software Industry in the New Era" issued by the State Council in August last year also emphasized the strengthening of integrated circuit and software professional construction, speeding up the establishment of integrated circuit disciplines, and supporting the integrated development of production and education. .

  Due to the particularity of the industry, the threshold of integrated circuit technology is relatively high, spanning multiple disciplines such as physics, chemistry, materials, and chemical engineering, and practical accumulation is inseparable from design to production.

  The person in charge of the Academic Degrees Committee Office of the State Council explained that due to the particularity of the research objects of the two disciplines of "Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering" and "National Security", the theory and method involved more existing first-level disciplines, showing a multidisciplinary integration The outstanding features of interdisciplinary research have been fully demonstrated by experts and are set under the interdisciplinary category.

  "For a long time, all parties have been relatively active in developing interdisciplinary research and have also put forward many useful opinions and suggestions. However, they lack a unified understanding of the connotation extension, evolutionary law, and construction mechanism of interdisciplinary research, and they are often conceptually related to interdisciplinary research. Confusion can easily lead to the tendency to blindly cross disciplines.” The person in charge added that the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council is studying and formulating relevant methods for the establishment and management of cross disciplines to further clarify what cross disciplines are, how to build and develop cross disciplines, and how to develop based on cross disciplines. Basic issues such as personnel training, and make specific provisions in terms of interdisciplinary setting conditions, setting procedures, degree authorization and awarding, and quality assurance.

  Li Lin, an industry insider who has been in the semiconductor industry for nearly 20 years, told China Business News that there is a huge gap in the market for integrated circuit talents and a lack of college graduates in related majors. The establishment of first-level disciplines aims to solve the lack of graduates from counterpart majors. The problem starts.

  "Our universities lack targeted professional disciplines. Except for a few key universities, almost no universities have integrated circuit disciplines, and the extreme professionalism of integrated circuits makes no one available to companies, and general computer and other disciplines do not have relevant capabilities. Chip companies often go to universities a year in advance to grab people.” Li Lin also said that the current overseas situation is not conducive to international students in integrated circuits, and we need to train talents ourselves.

  What is lacking in integrated circuit talent training?

  Although the government, enterprises, and academia have paid more and more attention to the integrated circuit industry in recent years, the talent gap still exists.

  According to the "White Paper on Talents in China's Integrated Circuit Industry (2019-2020 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as "White Paper"), as of the end of 2019, the number of people directly engaged in the integrated circuit industry in my country was approximately 511,900, an increase of 50,900 from the previous year Among them, the number of employees in the design, manufacturing, and packaging and testing industries are 181,200, 171,900 and 158,800 respectively.

  Based on the current industry development trend and the corresponding per capita output value, the "White Paper" predicts that by 2022, the demand for talents in the entire industry will reach about 744,500, of which the design industry will be 270,400, the manufacturing industry will be 264,300, and the packaging and testing will be 20.98. Million people.

In other words, there is still a gap of more than 200,000 talents in the industry.

  In terms of employment in colleges and universities, the "White Paper" shows that PhD graduates of the Demonstrative Microelectronics College are more willing to work in universities or research institutes, and the proportion of direct employment for undergraduates is much lower than that of graduates/Ph.D.

Generally speaking, the situation of talent shortage is still severe, and the talent structure is obviously out of balance.

  Wang Shijiang, director of the Institute of Integrated Circuits of the China Electronics Information Industry Development Institute, said in his interpretation of the "White Paper" that there are four problems in the development of talents in my country's integrated circuit industry. They are the shortage of leading and high-end talents, and the lack of attractiveness to talents; talent training teachers Insufficient support and training conditions, the integration of production and education needs to be strengthened; the phenomenon of digging between integrated circuit companies in my country is common, leading to frequent talent flows; my country’s attention to intellectual capital is insufficient, and the vitality of scientific researchers needs to be stimulated.

  Among them, Wang Shijiang specifically mentioned: "I hope that the problem of disconnection between industry and education can be resolved as soon as possible through the construction of first-level disciplines."

  The development of integrated circuits requires the three elements of capital, talent and time. If the establishment of the science and technology innovation board brings more imagination to semiconductor companies and improves the treatment of talents in the industry, the establishment of first-level disciplines The system and mechanism have solved the problems in talent training.

  Wu Hanming, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the School of Micro-Nanoelectronics at Zhejiang University, believes that the integration of production and education in integrated circuit majors in domestic universities should be strengthened. Students in this major must at least be qualified to do transistors.

  In an interview with China Business News, Wu Hanming stated that integrated circuit education must be a national game of chess, and some basic teaching materials for chip manufacturing must be strengthened, and manufacturing-related teaching work must also be carried out.

  Zhou Yumei, a researcher at the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also stated at an integrated circuit talent forum at the end of last year that although policies and funds have paid great attention to the cultivation of integrated circuit talents, the business community believes that it is still difficult to recruit and employ people. Can't get up.

  "The shortage of integrated circuit talents means that the entire society may lack a correct guidance, lack some policy guidance, or the salaries that companies can pay and the industry’s attractiveness is not that strong. We need the three parties of the demand side, the supply side and the government to work together to ease Contradictions, and gradually achieve a state of balance between supply and demand." Zhou Yumei said.

  Zhou Yumei believes that from the perspective of the scale of higher education, the number of higher education institutions in my country is not large at all, but the requirements for high education in the integrated circuit industry are far higher than the average number of the entire China.

"As a supplier, we must improve quality while expanding scale, improve practical ability based on book knowledge, let students understand the development of industrial technology progress, and improve engineering education capabilities."

  Author: gold leaf