{"id":21545,"date":"2026-05-06T07:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=21545"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:43:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:43:22","slug":"scale-expands-its-national-impact-becomes-purdues-largest-federally-funded-research-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/Q2\/scale-expands-its-national-impact-becomes-purdues-largest-federally-funded-research-effort","title":{"rendered":"SCALE expands its national impact, becomes Purdue\u2019s largest federally funded research effort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 The Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE)<\/a> program, the only U.S. defense microelectronics public-private-academic workforce development consortium, is now Purdue University\u2019s largest-ever federally funded research effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCALE leaders announced more than $100 million in total funding from the Department of War, a recent increase to the current contract through fiscal year 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That funding, to be distributed among SCALE\u2019s 35 partner universities, will help SCALE expand efforts to meet workforce needs in the microelectronics design and manufacturing chain through unique courses, mentoring, internship matching and targeted research projects for college students in several microelectronics specialty areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis ongoing and now enhanced funding reflects DoW\u2019s continued confidence in the SCALE program,\u201d said Mark Lundstrom, Purdue\u2019s chief semiconductor officer and the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. \u201cOur industry partners see this commitment and recognize that participating in SCALE is a strong investment in developing the skilled workforce they need. And SCALE, through this latest funding, will be able to leverage Purdue\u2019s leadership in semiconductor education to grow a sustained pipeline of highly skilled U.S. citizen microelectronics talent, which is foundational to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCALE\u2019s co-directors are Purdue\u2019s Peter Bermel<\/a>, the Elmore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Kerrie Douglas<\/a>, associate professor of engineering education. The Trusted and Assured Microelectronics Program<\/a> in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering oversees SCALE on behalf of the Department of War. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division<\/a>, manages the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Malcolm McClymont, a graduate student in the SCALE program at Purdue University, discusses his poster display in the System-on-Chip section at SCALE-Con. (Purdue University photo\/Kevin Krisp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SCALE now produces the largest coordinated pipeline of defense microelectronics talent in the United States. According to program data, SCALE graduates enter the workforce eligible for clearances, with 339 alumni already placed in defense microelectronics jobs across 75 employer partners, and more than 161 alumni entered graduate studies in microelectronics-relevant fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 64% of SCALE alumni are working in defense or for defense contractors. Nine of the 10 most common employers for SCALE graduates and interns are in the defense sector, according to program statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By embedding defense-relevant standards into academia, SCALE reduces employer onboarding time and lowers training costs, while increasing transition efficiency into defense-sector roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purdue leads the SCALE academic consortium, which currently includes 1,175 students across 35 member universities. Since its founding in 2020, SCALE has supported 1,750 students, helping address a critical workforce shortage in the defense semiconductor sector, while providing an increasingly higher return on investment for taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCALE is a public-private-academic partnership focused on five technical specialty areas: compound semiconductors, heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging, system-on-chip design, radiation hardening, and trusted artificial intelligence. Students prepare for careers through apprenticeships, internships and research opportunities with more than 75 government and industry partners. These partners, along with member universities, help define workforce needs, curriculum and hands-on training experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Department of War\u2019s continued investment also underscores SCALE\u2019s growing impact,\u201d said Dan DeLaurentis, Purdue\u2019s executive vice president for research and the Bruce Reese Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. \u201cSCALE\u2019s return on investment has nearly tripled over the past 18 months, reaching $9.50 for every dollar invested, while the cost per student has been cut in half.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continued funding will allow SCALE to provide more hands-on learning opportunities for non-traditional students, like veterans, and for all students through defense internships and apprenticeships. The program also will strongly emphasize creating a foundation for students to develop, manufacture and test AI-enabled, secure, integrated systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purdue\u2019s national leadership in microelectronics and semiconductors is a cornerstone of Purdue Computes<\/a>, a comprehensive initiative that spans computing departments, physical artificial intelligence, quantum science and semiconductor innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Media contact:<\/strong> Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 The Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE) program, the only U.S. defense microelectronics public-private-academic workforce development consortium, is now Purdue University\u2019s largest-ever federally funded research effort. SCALE leaders announced more than $100 million in total funding from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":21543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[136],"class_list":["post-21545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purdue-computes","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21548,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21545\/revisions\/21548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21545"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=21545"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=21545"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=21545"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}