Government officials from US, Mexico and Canada join industry, academia leaders in nation's capital

Arizona State University is hosting government and industry leaders from the U.S., Canada and Mexico at a high-level conference in Washington, D.C., this week to ensure North America’s future in the semiconductor industry.

ASU, in partnership with the Semiconductor Industry Association, is holding the first-ever North America Semiconductor Conference, where representatives from government, academia and industry will focus on aligning policy, expanding manufacturing, strengthening the supply chain and growing the workforce across the continent. Thursday’s events lean into industry and university representatives from the U.S., Canada and Mexico — including ASU faculty — and the government-focused Friday talks include cabinet members from all three countries.

“The logic of all this is that by working together, we can make products better and faster and at lower cost and this will help all three countries create the jobs of the future and build our economies from the bottom out,” said Max Hamilton, director for North American affairs at the National Security Council. He spoke during a press briefing about the conference on Wednesday.

“We’re including academia because we recognize that building a resilient supply chain is not something that government can do alone. Working together, we can build a more robust research ecosystem.”

Industry, academic and government leaders from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. convened in Washington, D.C., on Thursday for the North America Semiconductor Conference. Photo by Samantha Chow/ASU

Semiconductors are vital components of technology, in everything from phones to cars to defense weapons. The U.S. dominated semiconductor research and manufacturing until the 1980s, when most of it moved to Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the world’s dependency on Asia when supply chain disruptions led to critical shortages.

In 2022, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law, releasing $52 billion over five years to help the U.S. regain its superiority in semiconductor research, manufacturing and supply chain logistics.

Arizona is going to be a major player in the initiative, thanks to big investments by companies such as Intel and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is building two gigantic chip-fabricating centers in north Phoenix that will create 4,500 jobs, including 3,000 engineers. Several smaller companies are growing and relocating to the state as well.

ASU is an important factor not only for its location in a border state but also because it has the largest engineering school in the country, according to Kevin McGinnis, managing director for strategic technology initiatives at ASU.

“The challenges the industry faces are a significant shortage of workers and intense global competition,” he said.

A workshop on Thursday focused on workforce strategies.

“Our goal is to share lessons learned and best practices and identify concrete skills, and the specific types of skills, that the industry needs to fill to be competitive,” McGinnis said.

“We’ll think about how to fill gaps across all three countries, who’s doing it, who needs help and how we can expand those programs together.”

ASU has already been working on the issue, he said, including signing a memorandum of understanding with Mexico in November to expand workforce development there.

“We look at it very holistically,” he said, noting that many of the semiconductor jobs will be for technicians, and ASU has been working with the community colleges on job training for that. In addition, ASU established the New Economy Initiative Council — made of industry partners, academic experts and civic leaders — to address workforce development. ASU also provides hands-on training and access to leading-edge equipment at the MacroTechnology Works facility.

Jose Quiroga, director of global development for the Office of Global Outreach and Extended Education in ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, moderates the discussion during the Future of North America’s Semiconductor Workforce (via Industry-Government-University Partnerships) session Thursday. Photo by Samantha Chow/ASU

The conference has a session on pinpointing the strengths and challenges of the U.S., Canada and Mexico all along the semiconductor supply chain.

That kind of mapping is important, according to Roberto Velasco Álvarez, chief officer for the North America unit at the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs.

“We need to understand exactly what each country is doing and how we can complement each other and not compete with each other,” he said.

“In the end, if we want to view this as a regional effort, the important thing is to think how we can be more competitive with other regions in the world and build on our strengths.

“Mexico believes that development of this industry is one of the most critical things we can do for our future.”

Michael Grant, assistant deputy minister for the Americas at Global Affairs Canada, said the conference focus will be on hard work.

“I think on the one hand it's really demonstrating North America as a cohesive competitive bloc in this particular and vital industry, but also it's about the practical,” he said.

“It's about bringing all of the stakeholders together and really rolling up your sleeves and getting practical about moving forward. It's about really getting down to business.”

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo is leading the U.S. delegation at the conference, which will include representatives from Intel, Skyworks, IBM, IQE and TSMC, as well as officials from the governments, universities and technology industries in Canada and Mexico.

The Milken Institute will publish a Summary of Conclusions and Joint Action Plan as a follow-up to the conference.

Top photo: Industry, government and academic leaders from Canada, Mexico and the United States — including ASU faculty and staff — gather Thursday to discuss supply chain solutions and workforce development. Photo by Samantha Chow/ASU

Mary Beth Faller

Reporter , ASU News

480-727-4503 marybeth.faller@asu.edu

Paper from ASU faculty illustrates how mindfulness can relieve anxiety, stress, despair

Imagine being a scientist working on climate change.

The problems in front of you are enormous. Solutions seem inadequate and, perhaps, too late.

To make matters worse, the politicization of climate change has made you a target — on talk shows, in newspapers and across social media.

How do you cope?

With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, ASU News talked to Zachary Reeves-Blurton, assistant director of the Arizona State University Center for Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience.

Reeves-Blurton co-authored a paper in the Society for Conservation Biology titled “Practicing Mindfulness in Addressing the Biodiversity Crisis.”

The paper was also co-authored by Leah Gerber, a professor of conservation science in the School of Life Sciences and founding director of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes; Nika Gueci, the inaugural executive director of the Center for Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience; Gwen Iacona, program lead for conservation investment in the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, part of Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation; Jessica Beaudette, a research associate at the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes; and Teri Pipe, the founding director of the Center of Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience.

Here, Reeves-Blurton talks about the results of the study, and how these practices can help anyone dealing with these feelings.

Note: The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Question: What prompted you and your co-authors to write the article?

Answer: Here at the Center for Mindfulness, we were approached by the faculty at the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes. They noted that climate scientists, conservationists, sustainability scientists, etc., were facing a lot of burnout, workplace fatigue and morale issues. We wanted to kind of dig into not only why this is happening but look at practices that these scientists can use to re-energize and be able to refocus on the work that they’re doing.

Q: Is this stress, anxiety and despair a recent phenomenon?

A: It’s not. Climate scientists have known for decades that there are systemic challenges that our world is facing without simple answers. But I think what has changed over the past decade or so is we’ve seen an increased politicization of climate science and global warming. Between that and the advent of social media, the 24/7 news cycle and the polarization of issues like this, we’re really seeing climate scientists who went into this for the sake of helping humanity and helping the planet suddenly, to some people, they’re the opponent. That’s what we’re really seeing taking a toll right now.

Q: I want to get back to that politicization in a minute, but given the scope of the problem, is there a sense of hopelessness among these scientists?

A: That really seems to be what we’re seeing right now. These scientists come into the field wanting to do good, wanting to make a difference, and it’s a form of grief that they are suffering. There’s a sense of ineffectiveness of the work at times. Sometimes, scientists are ill-equipped to deal with what they’re getting as far as pushback.

Q: Do they feel like they’re under attack?

A: Many climate scientists do feel that not only are they maybe under attack as field, but there’s push to misconstrue the work or to disguise the level of trouble, that is to minimize the nature of the problem itself.

Q: Can you elaborate on some the ways these scientists – or anyone – can practice mindfulness?

A: Some of them simply come back to what they call the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness. For instance, the ability to be patient not only with the arc of history and sometimes the slow sense of progress that we’re seeing, but also patience with themselves, understanding that they are doing what they can. We also talk a great deal in the article about rediscovering and/or reconnecting with their passion and their motivation for doing the work, and a sense of really refining that wonder of, “Wow, this is what we’re fighting for. This is what we’re trying to preserve or change.”

Q: What else can they do?

A: Within mindfulness there are a variety of practices, whether they’re simple things, like sitting and breathing, taking a few moments to be reflective and really examining what we’re feeling in the moment. That’s really one of the tenets of mindfulness. It allows us to really take a close examination of, “OK, I’m feeling anxiety, I’m feeling frustration. What is the source of that? What can I do with it?”

It’s so easy for all of us right now to be in this generalized sense of ongoing anxiety. And in our fast-paced world, we just have to push through anxiety and issue after issue without really taking the time to pause, breathe and say, “OK, so what is bothering me right now?” It’s just a constant focus on the present moment.

You can do mediation, you can do a reflective writing exercise, you can simply breathe. Anything that allows you to really be conscious about what you’re doing, what your movement is, how your body and mind are relating. Anything that brings your mind just to the task at hand has a biochemical effect on our brains, bodies and nervous system. That really calms the nervous system itself and allows us to regain the capacity for critical thinking and reasoning.

Q: This has to be a continual practice, right?

A: Absolutely. We look at mindfulness like any other exercise. If you do it once, if you and I were to sit down and say, “OK, we’re going to do a focused breathing exercise for three minutes” – and we see this in our workshops all the time – people will immediately say, “Oh yeah, I feel really calm right now. I feel really relaxed.” Five minutes later into their day, that’s all gone.

The more we exercise that mindfulness muscle, just like any other system of the body, not only does that allow us with time to reach a deeper level of that mental or that emotional equanimity and calm, but it allows that feeling to linger longer. It has to become a lifetime practice. The more we do it and the more we weave it into our everyday lives, the better the results for us are.

Top photo courtesy Shutterstock.

Scott Bordow

Reporter , ASU News

Scott.Bordow@asu.edu