Overview

"Why does my health insurance card have a chip?" "What does a chip look like?" "How many chips does a mobile phone contain?" To help the next generation learn more about the semiconductor industry, UMC employees in Hsinchu and Tainan have volunteered their time and designed popular science workshops for elementary school students, which started in 2022. These interactive sessions demystify semiconductors for young students, explaining how a chip is made to where they can be found in our daily lives.

For UMC volunteers, the first challenge is to develop attractive content for digital-native school kids, many of whom have parents working in the industry. Instead of a lecture approach, our employees encourage students to think critically about which products in their daily lives may contain semiconductors. They also learn about different parts of the industry value chain and the wafer manufacturing process through videos and interactive activities.

During the 40-minute session, students learn the basics of semiconductors through fun and hands-on activities, such as trying on the cleanroom suit. That is always the most popular part of the class, and inevitably lead to the question: “Putting on the suit is so complicated. What if you need to get to the bathroom?” For students with parents working in a fab, this experience helps them better appreciate what their parents do and the hard work they put in.

The educational workshops are not only a way for UMC to leverage our expertise and give back to our community, but they are also a very rewarding experience for our volunteers. The program has run for over a year, and in that time, more than 25 sessions have been organized for approximately 5,000 students. We will continue expanding our workshops to more schools near the Hsinchu and Tainan science parks, which we believe will help improve scientific literacy and cultivate the next generation of talent for our industry.