My time at Micron was exceptional! I had the opportunity to spend time in so many different areas of Micron’s semi-conductor manufacturing and R&D environment. My main focus was to gain an understanding of industry engineering standards and practices, and that is exactly what I received. To serve as a brief synopsis of my experience, I worked with manufacturing technicians, process engineers, manufacturing engineers, equipment technicians, machine and tool manufactures, shift leads, area managers, process owners (R&D engineers). I spent time in places like the Remote Operations Center (ROC), clean room fabrication (FAB4), machine shop, “sub fab”. chemical storage, transport and abatement, and many conference rooms for daily confirmation meetings. I learned about the Semi-conductor manufacturing process, and R&D specifically. I participated in preventative maintenance (PM) in which we changed a “Kit” for a Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) tool. I assisted in the replacement of a vacuum pump for a Diffusion tool. I observed the scheduling and tool management system as well as several proprietary and 3rd party communication systems. I connected and learned from so many incredible Micron Team Members that not only showed passion for their work but a complete understanding as to what Micron’s goal is and how they directly contribute to that immense mission.

Take aways from this experience extend past the curriculum changing realization. It was a shaping experience that forced me into the realization of what industrial engineering is like and how my curriculum already helps ready students for careers in such an environment; directly correlating my classroom. I plan on implementing several ideas taken from my experience: 1. Creating a Preventative Maintenance (PM) schedule in which I will personally train students on how to run maintenance on the tools and machines that we use often (ex: CO2 lasers, 3D printers, engineering laptops, power tools). The purpose of this is not only to help reduce the amount of work that I, as the teacher, must complete but also increases student autonomy, independence, and responsibility. 2. Problem Statement slips are something that one specific area in Micron complete every time their manufacturing engineers are solving a problem for their team. They simply write out what is the problem they are trying to solve, and what observations they are having about said problem. For students, this will help them assemble their thoughts and hopefully help them work their way through their problem alone. Then I am able to step in and read clear and concise problem they are having and their own observations. Absent of this, the interacting between student and teacher looks significantly less structured and looks more like an answer seeking scenario rather than a problem-solving scenario. 3. Finally, having Micron team members from various areas come and speak to my classes to explain to them what Micron is all about and the direct ways in which the material that they (my students) are learning about could create a career at Micron in the future. The intention of this relationship is that we help students discover what they may want to do as a career early on, as well as assist Micron in their necessity for people of various skills.

Grade Level and Subject Taught: 8th & 9th grade Pre-engineering