The University of Washington's Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering added virtual reality cleanroom training to Devices and Circuits 1 (EE 331), taught by associate teaching professor Tai-Chang Chen, so undergraduates reach their first hands-on semiconductor lab already familiar with how a cleanroom works.
The course licensed the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) VR educational platform and ran it on eight Meta Quest 3 headsets — one per student, per lab section — prepared by the Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF). The licensed library covered Cleanroom Gowning, Cleanroom Safety, a four-part photolithography series and Micron Technology's Careers in a High-Tech World VR. Modules run roughly 20 minutes each and place the student inside a simulated cleanroom, including simulated face-to-face interactions with CNF equipment and staff.
Students complete the modules in VR before their hands-on sessions in the WNF cleanroom in Fluke Hall, so they enter the facility better prepared and make more productive use of limited lab time. UW reports that early observations suggest the platform meaningfully extends the reach of experiential learning in EE 331.
WNF acting director Darick Baker worked with CNF and the UPWARDS for the Future Network to enrol UW in CNF's beta-test deployment through the CNF VR Early Adopters Program, and prepared the headsets for students. UPWARDS — the U.S.–Japan University Partnership for Workforce Advancement and Research & Development in Semiconductors, launched in 2023 by Micron Technology and Tokyo Electron with university partners — funded platform access at $10,000 a year for two years, with a second VR-equipped course planned for 2027. Chen is also exploring a UW–Japan study-abroad fabrication course with UPWARDS member institutions.
The modules themselves were produced by CNF with Cornell's Center for Teaching Innovation and its Creative Technology Lab. The Semiconductor Industry Association projects that 67,000 US semiconductor jobs will go unfilled by 2030 — 58% of roles across manufacturing and design — the workforce gap this training is aimed at.
