2014

Highlights

• SRC is adapting its operations to fuel innovation and increase member value. Some of these include: creating custom research programs for major supporters that closely align with their technology focus; developing and maintaining balanced approaches for the creation and operation of special efforts, weighing their potential value against the effort/costs required to initiate and sustain them; increasing focus on highly leveraged government partnerships; and using the SRC IP portfolio as a safe asset for member companies.
• SRC managed a total of 448 contracts, grants and agreements with 143 different universities and research organizations worldwide.
• Global Research Collaboration (GRC) efforts have grown significantly over the past year and include the targeted topics of cyber security, semiconductors and biology, advanced connectivity, and the internet of things. Targeted programs initiated in 2014 include: Trustworthy and Secure Semiconductors and Systems (T3S), cyber security research to develop chips and systems that are reliable, trustworthy, secure, and resistant to attack or counterfeiting; Efficiency and Performance for Connectivity Constrained Computing (EP3C), advanced connectivity research to identify revolutionary architectures and associated interconnect technology that minimize the energy constraints on future computing performance improvements; SemiSynBio (SSB), supporting research that seeks to learn from living cells how to benefit semiconductor technologies; and Innovative and Intelligent Internet of Things (I3T), research investigating energy-constrained computation and connectivity.
• During the second year of its five-year mission, STARnet generated 694 publications and 75 graduates available for jobs in industry, government or academia. Strong collaboration within and among the six STARnet centers continues to result in many successful research efforts.
• During 2014, perhaps the most exciting results within Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) came from CNFD, where advances in voltage- controlled magnetism are opening new approaches to fast, low-power memory and logic. Leadership was also exemplified by the benchmarking research effort – a rigorous methodology developed by NRI for evaluating the relative performance potential of diverse exploratory devices.
• 2228 students were active during 2014 in SRC’s Student Programs, generating a critical workforce to drive the semiconductor sector. In September, SRC hosted 250 students representing 68 universities at the 16th annual TECHCON conference.