Cardiff, UK, 04 February 2022

To coincide with the launch of a new project promoting semiconductor technologies, skills and career opportunities in the sector, Swansea University’s Owen Guy and Mike Jennings “The Professors” met with Dragons Rugby Star Jamie Roberts at industry partner SPTS’s headquarters near Newport, to talk rugby and semiconductors – on the eve of this years Six Nations tournament.

The project, POWERED-PEMD (POWering Engagement, Re-skilling, Education and Diversity for Power Electronics Machines and Drives), is raising awareness of the importance of semiconductors to our world – especially in relation to electronics for Electric Vehicles and Energy Efficiency technologies in the drive towards “net zero”,

The semiconductor industry powers the technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, online commerce and trading and Electric and Autonomous Vehicles (EV and EAV).

The power electronics and related semiconductor industry is booming, with over 100,000 high skilled jobs in the sector in the UK with job numbers are set to explode in this sector! The UK semiconductor industry is centred around Newport, with major industries including SPTS Technologies (a KLA company), Nexperia, IQE and Microchip all in the region.

The project will engage with school children and teachers with taster courses, interactive apps, webcasts hands-on workshops and site visits for pupils, in association with Dragons Rugby. The project plans to teach up to 60,000 school children about semiconductors – how they are made and where they are used.

Mike and Owen explained Jamie how the semiconductor revolution is powering the technology of today and tomorrow and how Swansea and the Dragons are working with Semiconductor industry partners SPTS, Nexperia and CSconnected to develop a talent pipeline for job opportunities in Wales.

The project also aligns with the UK's Driving the Electric Revolution programme, where Swansea University have a £5M project developing next generation semiconductor devices for automotive applications.

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