New Project Approaches in Advanced Microelectronics: The Students' Perspective

Abstract

This paper describes how microelectronics can be regarded as a compelling work topic among students when experienced within their own built work environment. Undergraduate students from several degree years have formed a group in which have been developing microelectronics related projects in an autonomous way. In this initiative, the topics are freely chosen by the students, mainly addressing the design of integrated circuits. For that reason, the projects entail scientific concepts with very high-degree of complexity. Nonetheless, with an outstanding enthusiasm and well-organized as a team, the students manage to surpass the lack of great knowledge in technical details. Throughout basic understanding of essential concepts, this autonomous group of students demonstrates how an extracurricular activity within an academic environment can effectively enhance productivity and motivation for working on scientific areas that are often considered interesting, yet difficult in practice. The present paper describes the key activities of the group, its organization, and the chosen strategies for the definition of a high-complexity project within distinct heterogeneous levels of knowledge and expertise among students.