A new partnership between UC Santa Barbara’s Nanofabrication Facility and semiconductor startup PseudolithIC is giving Carpinteria High School (CHS) students a rare hands-on experience in semiconductor engineering while helping to build a future workforce for one of Santa Barbara County’s fastest-growing industries.  

Through an innovative internship model called the Classroom Hosted Industry Partnership (CHIP) Program, students enrolled in the Advanced Engineering Program at CHS, are working alongside engineers and researchers on semiconductor packaging challenges while gaining exposure to advanced manufacturing, product development, and engineering design. 

The initiative was spearheaded by Ben Werner, a senior technical program manager at semiconductor company PseudolithIC, which was co-founded by James Buckwalter, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSB. Werner said that the program was created to address the gap between student interest in technical careers and the limited number of internships available.  

“There are probably at least ten times more students who would like an internship than there are internships available,” he said. “So, we started asking how we could expand access to industry experiences without putting all the burden on employers.” 

The result was CHIP, an internship model that embeds industry-sponsored projects into Career Technical Education courses, allowing teachers to provide daily guidance while professionals mentor students throughout the semester.

CHS engineering teacher Kurt Miller sees the new program as a direct pathway between local students and the area’s technology sector.

“I believe every student should have workplace experience before graduation,” he said. “The CHIP program bridges the gap between classroom learning, which can feel theoretical, and the workplace, where learning is practical and has real consequences.”

Miller serves as the classroom instructor and advisor, and industry mentors help guide the direction of the projects, creating an environment that mirrors professional engineering teams and helping, he said, “to simulate a true professional environment.”

The CHIP internship model fills an important gap in semiconductor education, given that traditional materials-focused internships and fabrication facilities are often inaccessible to high school students. 

For the semiconductor-focused project at CHS, Werner partnered with Demis D. John, process group manager at the UCSB Nanofabrication Facility, to introduce students to semiconductor packaging — the critical process of turning fragile silicon chips into usable electronic components. The students’ goal is to design and machine functional packages for pressure-sensor chips produced in UCSB’s cleanroom facilities. 

“If I hand someone a disk of microchips, they can’t actually do anything with it,” said John. “Packaging is what turns a microchip into something you can plug into a circuit board and use in a real product.”

John, who is also a mentor in the program, says that the project addresses one of the semiconductor industry’s most pressing challenges: visibility and awareness among local students. “A big problem for semiconductor companies in our area is that the people who live here don’t know those jobs exist,” he said. “And even if they do, they often don’t know how to get into them.” 

By combining semiconductor technology with hands-on skills such as CAD design, machining, and electronic wiring — challenges that all packaging engineers deal with — the program makes the field more approachable. 

“It shows students that this work is challenging, interesting, and something they’re capable of doing,” said John.

The experience taught Wyatt Caskey, a junior high school student, that progress often comes through research and development, while helping him narrow his career interests toward biomedical engineering.

“One of the most important skills I’ve developed is learning to embrace trial and error, no matter how frustrating,” Caskey said. “This project showed me that failure is a necessary part of improvement.”

For high school sophomore Kamran Dadvar, the most lasting impact of the program was the confidence he gained in using industry level tools and tackling engineering problems.

“I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but I was determined to give it my all,” Dadvar said. “The experience taught me not only technical skills, but also how to present my work and communicate effectively with employers. The best part has been being able to grow an engineer’s mindset and become capable of making and doing so many amazing things.” 

The Nanofab-Pseudolithic partnership is one of four CHIP projects launched this year at Carpinteria High School, alongside collaborations with Rincon Engineering, CMC Rescue, and Toyon Research Corporation.