I was recently invited by IMAPS UK to give a keynote at their annual conference, MicroTech 2021. The topic was Heterogeneous Integration (HI). I agreed, provided I was allowed to give the topic a new twist. I provided the following abstract, and the committee eagerly agreed to my proposal:
A Sustainable Future Requires Heterogeneous Integration
In September 2015, 193 member states of the UN adopted 17 new sustainable development goals (SDGs) to make our world more prosperous, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient. As a result, key players in the semiconductor supply chain have established sustainability practices to support these goals. Additionally, companies are also endeavoring to meet the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Criteria that socially conscious investors use in their screening process.
From a technology perspective, we talk about heterogeneous integration (HI) as the solution for developing low-power, high-performance devices that contribute to achieving these goals by making possible things like 5G and electric vehicles, as well as progress in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) needed to support smart, sustainable cities and infrastructure. Companies must also be conscious of engaging in sustainable manufacturing practices to build these devices. Meeting both SDGs and ESG criteria requires input from cross-cultural, multidisciplinary groups of people.
When chips of different functionalities are integrated into a single device, we see increases in performance and power efficiency. Similarly, when individuals of different gender, races, and ethnicities are integrated into corporate culture, we see increases in innovation, productivity, and more promise for a sustainable future. In this talk, we will look at the term, “heterogeneous integration” through a different lens, using it as an analogy of what can be accomplished when diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) become pillars of our corporate culture.
The organization kindly provided a recording of my presentation. You can watch it in its entirety here.
Equality Diversity and Inclusivity: haven’t we done enough already, and why does this matter to the UK’s Microelectronics Industry?
The next talk dovetailed nicely with mine. It was presented by Anne Vanhoestenberghe, Professor at University College London, UCL, who specializes in Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology. She is passionate about DEI, (or as they call it in the UK – Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) and provides detailed data and evidence to support the benefits of DEI/EDI that I touched on in my talk. She describes the business use case for EDI. She also talks about the importance of belonging. She gave me permission to share it here.
Thank you to IMAPS UK for making these talks available to the public. The more people who understand about the benefits DEI/EDI bring to the workplace, the better off we will be as an industry!
