Abstract:

The Computer-Aided Life-Cycle Engineering (CALCE) Electronic Packaging and System Center (EPSC) at the University of Maryland, College Park is a National Science Foundation center of excellence, sponsored by over fifty industry and government members, with an annual research budget of over $4M. Over 60 faculty, research staff and students, conduct research using the Center's state-of-the-art manufacturing, testing, experimental and computational facilities. This paper summarizes the recent significant contributions of the CALCE Electronics Packaging Research Center in the areas of research education and technology transfer. In the 1980's, University of Maryland faculty began teaching courses on electronic packaging and wrote the first book on this topic. As a result of two subsequent $1M grants under the U.S. Government Technology Re-investment Program, the Computer-Aided Life-Cycle Engineering (CALCE) Electronic Packaging And System Center (EPSC) today provides a cross-disciplinary undergraduate and graduate curriculum on Electronic Packaging and Reliability. Offered through the Mechanical Engineering Department, students from all engineering disciplines including Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Reliability Engineering enroll in the program. The success of the EPS graduate program is evidenced by the respect it has gained from the electronics industry. All graduates of this program have been keenly sought after, and have enjoyed excellent job opportunities. In the era of dwindling enrollments in many graduate engineering programs, the EPS program has seen a consistent growth. The instructional methodologies employed in this curriculum development effort are described and can serve as models for other multi-disciplinary programs.

Complete article is available to CALCE Consortium members.