Featured image above from a presentation of UP’s Dr. Louis P. Alarcon.
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(SDN) — Apparently, there is no dearth of goodwill — even actual government push through fundings and programs for the semiconductor and electronics (S&E) industry — but the Philippines still suffers from a critical lack in graduate-level designers of integrated circuits (ICs).
The head of the Microelectronics Department (MED) of the University of the Philippines and director of the Center for Integrated Circuit and Devices Research (CIDR), Dr. Louis P. Alarcon, voiced what might be an alarming revelation on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.
He was one of the featured presenters at the IC Design Workforce Media Roundtable that focused on “Boosting Semiconductor Industry through Upskilling and Career Development” held at the Board of Investments (BOI) Penthouse, Industry and Investment Building, Makati City, Metro Manila.
For the event, the public and private sector such as Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through its innovation arm, the Philippine Council on Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), and the CIDR collaborated along with the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines (SEIPI) and the Electronics Industries Association of the Philippines, Inc. (EIAPI), as well as key academic and industry stakeholders.
Organizers of the tech-related event invited Xinyx Design and Consultancy Services to join the Semiconductor and Electronics sub-Working Group aimed at Workforce Development and Promotion and Events.
Alarcon leads Workforce Development while Xinyx Design will handle the group’s Promotion and Events.
“Our severe lack of graduate-level manpower is limiting our ability to attract investments in advanced technology areas, as these investments seem to pass us by as seen from these headlines,” Alarcon points out, who stressed in his presentation this acute lack of IC designers who are graduate-level.
He attributed this scarcity as one reason why the Philippines is being sidetracked by giant technology companies in their investments on advanced technology.
The news headlines he cited included:
● Microsoft announces US$2.2 billion investment to fuel Malaysia’s cloud and AI transformation
● Amazon Web Services announces MYR 25.5 billion investment in Malaysia
● Microsoft announces $1.7 billion investment into Indonesia over the next four years to build
new cloud and AI infrastructure
● Nvidia plans to build a $200 million AI center in Indonesia amid push into Southeast Asia
● Apple announces investment in Vietnam as Tim Cook visits Hanoi
In a related development, the U.P. official drove home the point the number of Filipino researchers per a million population lags behind the country’s neighbors.
For instance, Alarcon said Singapore has 6,308; Malaysia, 2,397; Thailand, 1,350; Viet Nam, 708; Indonesia, 216; and the Philippines, a poor 106 researchers, who are mostly Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
SEIPI Foundation, Inc. President Danilo C. Lachica seemed to agree with this observation, saying the Philippines per year has around 800,000 graduates but only 10 percent are engineers.
While revealing the Philippines’ inability to muster enough pool of IC designers with M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, Alarcon, at the same time, pointed the “level of sophistication and complexity” is unreachable in the undergraduate curricula as IC designers are at the top of the food chain, the mood, however, at the event was not all gloom and doom.
PCIEERD Deputy Executive Director Niñaliza H. Escorial in her presentation noted the DOST through its Innovation Council had already invested from 2011 to 2022 a total of Php894 million for 29 projects of the electronics industry research and development (R&D).
BOI targets 128K S&E engineers in 5 years
Aside from many other contributions of PCIEERD, it also has a Human Resource Development Program (HRDP) that seeks to develop and enhance Filipino R&D capabilities of academic/research institutions, as well as DOST agencies through degree programs, the conduct of research activities, and expert mobility in the industry, energy and emerging technology (IEET) sectors to meet the present and future human resource requirements.
On the other hand, the Board of Investments (BOI) in a handout to reporters made emphasis on the fact the Philippines S&E industry is still “the top contributor to PH’s total exports accounting for around 56.9 percent or US$41.91 billion in 2023, and the 3rd largest contributor to the country’s manufacturing Gross Value Added (GVA) accounting for 11 percent of the total manufacturing GVA for the same period.”
And that in the global reckoning, the BOI pointed to the Philippine position that “accounted for 2.7 percent of world IC exports and has been among the top 10 exporters for at least the last decade with CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 7.9 percent.”
Alarcon suggested some measures to address the country’s lack of graduate-level IC designers, citing the need for a National Graduate Program on IC Design, National Faculty Fellowship Program on IC Design, National Research Fund for IC Design, and National Center for Integrated Circuits.
One answer, perhaps, is with the BOI which has set 128,000 S&E engineers and technicians as target come 2028.
The BOI co-chairs with the SEIPI Foundation, Inc. the Product and Technology Holistic Strategy or PATHS to fast-track through the S&E Working Group the industry’s growth.
Still more to address the acute lack, Xinyx Design, under the leadership of President and General Manager Charade Avondo, the company has its “Campus Connect” program focused on developing a pipeline of skilled IC design engineers through provisions of scholarships, funding for laboratories, and support for curriculum development to academic institutions in the Philippines’ various different regions.
So, cranking up the gears of the semiconductor and electronics industry of the Philippines may just do the trick and remedy the severe lack of IC designers equipped with M.S. and Ph.D. diplomas. (♡)