Among the five cooperation areas under the MoU, Synopsys, one of the world’s leading electronic design automation (EDA) companies, will share training textbooks and license the use of chip design tools and software for VNU-HCM students. It will receive students for internships and introduce job opportunities at domestic and foreign businesses for semiconductor engineers graduating from this school.
The US enterprise will assist the VNU-HCM to train young lecturers in semiconductor design via a short-term course named “Train-the-Trainer”. Lecturers from the university will work at Synopsys in four months to improve their knowledge. The VNU-HCM has sent three lecturers from its University of Technology (HCMUT), University of Science (HCMUS), and University of Information Technology (UIT) to the first course.
In addition, the two sides will work together to develop the VNU-HCM Semiconductor Research Institute (VSRI) into a supplier of training and research laboratories for universities and startups, and a connection centre for semiconductor development between the VNU-HCM and businesses, institutes, and colleges of Vietnam and other countries.
Synopsys will help the VNU-HCM connect with its global partners so that Vietnamese side can supply high-quality manpower for them. It will also encourage its partners to build research and development centres at the VNU-HCM.
Data from Synopsys show that about 53% of the engineers working at chip design companies in Vietnam graduated from member universities of the VNU-HCM.
The school is training about 6,000 students in the branches directly or indirectly related to semiconductor technology. It aims to train more than 1,800 engineers and 500 master’s degree holders in chip design and establish the VSRI by 2030.
In 2024, the VNU-HCM is set to open the training branches of chip design and semiconductor technology at the three abovementioned member universities. It will also invest about 80 billion VND (3.2 million USD) in two new semiconductor laboratories at the HCMUS and the UIT. A similar laboratory took shape at the HCMUT in 2018./.