Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1498238
MAY 2023 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 15 gainfully employed, has a new car, and is feel- ing much more secure. I had one student who was pregnant while going through the program and had to miss graduation because she went into labor. She had never missed a day until that last week. Like so many others, her life is stable and she has the beginnings of a long career. Finally, there have been a number of stu- dents in my cohorts that took entry level positions and have now moved up through management and engineering as they dis- cover how many paths are now available to them. What growth or expansion projects are you planning? What are the first steps? With regard to the microelectronics boot camp, we are always evolving. Aer each co hor t , we re v ie w what wor ked and what needs improvement. Could we have explained things better or introduced future classes to newer technology and techniques? Case in point: In the past, all work in this boot camp was performed on a flat cou- pon (gold-plated ceramic disk) so we could expose the students to many challenges with regard to die/substrate attach and bonding. However, it did not reflect real-world assem- bly inside a metal enclosure. Aer teaching several cohorts, I was able to develop a reus- able enclosure that incorporated a removable base. is allowed students to work in a more realistic environment with real-world chal- lenges. e removable base allowed us, at the end of the cohort, to remove the base (con- taining all the students' work) and replace it with a fresh base for the next cohort. e bases are simple aluminum plates (inex- pensive) whereas the enclosure walls are machined aluminum and much more costly. To date, these enclosures have been used in 13 cohorts with no sign of wear. As for other (related) programs, we are currently preparing to hold our first J-STD