MSE Students Tour Micron

field trip

Fourteen students from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) recently toured Micron, one of the world's leading producers of computer memory and semiconductor systems.

The trip to the company's Manassas, Va. facility was sponsored by the department's Materials Science Graduate Society (MSGS) and conducted in collaboration with Materials D.C., the Washington chapter of ASM International. Micron's Zuzana Steen hosted the visit.

The group attended presentations by two of Micron's engineers, who discussed silicon industry trends and explained the company's economic significance as the last remaining producer of computer memory with production facilities in the U.S. Group members were also treated to a guided window tour of the company's fabrication facilities.

MSGS president Richard Suchoski, who organized the trip, says the students found it very informative, and were particularly excited to see the scale-up of ideas and products to an industrial level after having worked on campus in the smaller, academic setting of the Maryland NanoCenter's FabLab.

"What we do here on campus is research," he explains. "We write a paper and we send that out into the academic ether. But then somebody in industry picks up that paper and says, 'Hey, this will work,' and they put it into production. Seeing that process in effect, seeing what happens once a paper leaves our hands, was very interesting."

Suchoski hopes to organize similar trips in the coming semesters. He can be contacted with suggestions for future destinations at rasuchoski@gmail.com.

For More Information:

Visit the Micron Technology, Inc. web site »
Watch a Micron video about the production of Lexar® memory chips »

Published February 6, 2012