The program's goals are (1) to provide Radiation-Hardened microelectronics certificates to HBCU students who are U.S. Citizens so they can successfully pursue positions with the federal government, defense contractors, and other employers in related fields and/or advanced degrees and (2) to increase the knowledge and expertise of the HBCU faculty in these areas.

In addition to learning about an exciting subject where there is a shortage of qualified employees, students will have the opportunity to conduct summer research at Purdue University. There are also opportunities for a student to perform a summer internship with prospective employers. To complete the SCALE program and receive a certificate, students must complete the prerequisites, SCALE Baseline, and at least one SCALE Track.

To complete the SCALE program and receive a certificate, students must complete the prerequisites, SCALE Baseline, and at least one SCALE Track. The student can select a Radiation-Hardened Microelectronics track in Modeling and Simulation, Design, or Test and Analysis. For details about the courses, please see SCALE RH Certificate Program

For the Baseline, the SCALE program will provide the majority of the required course. The Circuit course, or equivalent will be provided by the home institution. For SCALE Tracks one (1) and two (2), the courses are available online. Institutions do not have to offer track three (3) if they do not have equivalent courses. Please see SCALE RH Certificate Program. Equivalent courses will be confirmed on a case-by-case basis by SCALE.

The SCALE program pays for the costs of the summer research and provides the student a stipend and additional support. In particular, each student will receive at least $6,000 in direct stipend payments for the summer, free housing for the duration of the program, and travel expenses (to include flights to and from the student’s home/school location, as well as ground transportation up to $1,200 round trip).

A list of topics for the summer research is published at the end of fall semester. Students need to apply to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program in January of the spring semester, by using this link. The SCALE campus ambassador can assist with the paperwork. The student will work with their assigned SCALE mentor to select the topic. Students applying to SURF after the deadline, should notify their faculty mentor/on-campus ambassador directly for guidance.

The SCALE RH Portal will provide a list of internship opportunities. Once students are part of SCALE, they can apply to these positions using the portal.

If any faculty members participating in SCALE from the HBCU pilot institutions want to collaborate on research, they can review the proposed projects for Summer and indicate what faculty they’d like to work with to co-mentor the students. Faculty can also submit their brief NSF-style CVs (prepared with SciENcv) for review by some of the organizers (specifically, Dr. Teressa McCarty, tmccarty@tcrdf.org, and Dr.

If training is needed, SCALE can send one of its staff members to the HBCU to provide faculty professional development and assistance. The timing will be determined on a case-by-case basis depending on prior level of experience at each institution but will likely range between a couple of days to a week.

Completing the SCALE RH baseline would only include the addition of a circuits course (if not already part of the student program of study). The courses for tracks one (1) and two (2) are available online. This should not cause a course overload fee.

At this time, the SCALE program will cover the fees.

Participating SCALE faculty will have an opportunity to train in specific areas such as radiation effects and the lab equipment. In addition, they will have an opportunity to collaborate with Purdue and other SCALE institutions at the West Lafayette campus each summer.

Each university will have to address this depending on the type of research proposed. For each radiation experiment, a university will need to have its own equivalent of safety review. Purdue can share its safety review procedures.

There is a global need for microelectronics that are safe and reliable for applications that include space travel, satellite communications, autonomous driving, and data centers. While radiation was previously only a concern for systems in space, it is now a concern for all applications using state-of-the-art chips with their smaller geometries. As such, Radiation-Hardened (RH) microelectronics are key components of military, civil and commercial systems.

The overall number of student participants cannot exceed 30 students in each cohort with the currently available budget. Although there is not a minimum, at least 2-3 students per year would be preferred, so that they have peers to work on the assignments together.

Yes. Faculty Mentors and On-Campus Ambassadors receive a stipend. Additionally, there are opportunities for professional development and research related to radiation hardening, as well as other areas of microelectronics.

The SCALE RH has two special virtual courses: Radiation-Hardened Microelectronics - Summer Introductory Lecture Series and Introduction to Radiation-Effects Engineering - SCALE nanoHUB website. Virtual courses will be assessed, but will not earn academic credit toward graduation.