Malaysia is one of the most important countries in the global semiconductor technology development industry, where there are many global and local companies involved in the design, manufacturing, packaging and testing of global semiconductor chips.
However, this industry is still seen as lacking talent in several areas, especially chip design engineers. Recently, the Penang government has opened the Penang Chip Design Academy center in Bayan Lepas which aims to train chip design engineers for the future.
The opening of the Penang Chip Design Academy was held yesterday, but it has already started training 25 students through the integrated circuit design mastery course (IC Design Mastery Course) since June 16.
The courses offered at the Penang Chip Design Academy are managed by certified industry professionals with 20 years of global experience, and will train new graduates as well as existing engineers who want to learn new skills that are useful for the development of the local semiconductor industry.
CEO of Penang Chip Design Academy, Harry Narayanan said that the academy's initial target is to train 200 engineers in the first year, and 1000 engineers by 2030.
The opening of the Penang Chip Design Academy is also part of the Penang government's grand plan to make the state a semiconductor technology development hub. Last week, the Penang government also opened the Penang Silicon Research and Incubation Space (SRIS), a local semiconductor chip research and development hub under the Penang Silicon Design @5KM+ (PSD@5KM+) initiative by InvestPenang.
The opening of the SRIS location is seen as benefiting a number of semiconductor chip design startups such as Filpal, Infinecs Lab and Silicon X. Other chip design companies such as SkyeChip and Sophic Automation are also reported to be opening chip design centers at the location.