12/2/2024 Cassandra Smith
Written by Cassandra Smith
Students with The Grainger College of Engineering will be better prepared for the workforce after a donation from Gentec-EO.
Professor Can Bayram won one of the 2024 Laser Labs Awards through Gentec-EO, which makes technology to measure laser beams. Applicants apply for a chance to win a high-end output measurement instrument. Bayram won a Pronto-Si, a sensitive handheld laser power detector.
“With the support of the Gentec-EO equipment donation, we will continue preparing a diverse, next-generation workforce via experiential learning (online and hands-on) for the U.S. semiconductor industry and microelectronics industry to help maintain its technological leadership,” said Bayram. He said the global semiconductor industry is poised for a decade of growth and is expected to be a trillion-dollar industry by the year 2028. “There is an absolute need for experiential technicians/technologists, strong device physicist, material scientists, semiconductor engineers and designers with deep understanding of the fundamentals and hands-on experience.”
That hands-on experience is part of why Gentec-EO offers this award program “By adding such equipment in their laboratories, educational optics organizations ensure their students have access to the same quality measurement instruments that are used today in the industry, helping students enter the workforce with valuable experience and knowledge,” Gentec-EO officials said in a description of the contest.
The contest was open to optics laboratories in universities and colleges all over the world. Winners are chosen based on criteria such as intended use of the requested equipment and number of students who would use the instrument.
Can Bayram is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of electrical and computer engineering with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is affiliated with the Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab.