Chip design hub: open, accessible and scalable infrastructure for research and education

Active Cooperative Agreement Awarded Last action

Award ID
2427391
Recipient
Awarding agency
Obligated
$2,800,000

Award facts

Completion date 27% complete
Funding agency
Division of Computer and Network Systems National Science Foundation
Place of performance
West Lafayette, IN, USA

Award details come from USAspending.gov.

Description

Abstract
Semiconductors and chips are a crucial part of everyday life in the united states. The covid-19 pandemic highlighted the problems caused by relying on imports for these essential components, affecting the economy, healthcare, and national security. To ensure national security, there is need to control all aspects of chip design, manufacturing, and integration. However, bringing chip manufacturing back to the US requires a significant increase in skilled workers, including technicians, engineers, scientists, and support staff. Chip manufacturing processes involve complex modeling and simulation tools, which are not commonly used in education today. Only a small number of universities in the US currently educate integrated circuit (IC) design engineers, and even tripling their enrollments won't meet the workforce demand. More universities need to be enabled to teach chip design. Many research institutions face challenges such as lack of information technology (IT), legal, and hardware support, educational materials, and experienced instructors. Chipshub will be a national chip design hub for all US universities and colleges, providing education and training that is critical to bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the US. Chipshub will overcome challenges that span (1) content/products: creation of appropriate and sharable educational and tool content; (2) infrastructure/market: secure, scalable, seamless, user-friendly, well-supported, and sustainable web delivery of the content; (3) users/customers: reaching, engaging, incentivizing, and training faculty to teach and/or conduct research in IC design; and (4) sustainability through community building and growth across partners, users, and content providers. Chipshub will robustly and sustainably meet the key requirements for a national chip design hub, including licensing, access, and maintenance of commercial and open-source electronic design automation (EDA) tools for end-to-end chip design and verification; secure cloud-based availability of process design kits that span from open-source nodes to emerging technologies; and paths to multi-project (i.e., shuttle) integration. Chipshub will leverage past NSF investment in nanohub infrastructure, plus multiple other investments at similar scale: NSF gateway infrastructure; DARPA and commercial funding of openroad and precision innovations; and commercial investment in chip design software. Chipshub team members have individually been at the forefront of the quest for accessible infrastructure that can serve training and workforce needs. This project will aim to deliver chipshub as an infrastructure that is built to last. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.

Transactions

Action Obligated Date
Amendment $875,000
Amendment $0
Amendment $0
Amendment $525,000
Original award $1,400,000

Subawards

Subrecipient Amount Awarded
Villanova University In The State Of Pennsylvania Chip Design Hub: Open, Accessible and Scalable Infrastructure for Research and Education $69,967
Arizona State University $80,000
The Leland Stanford Junior University $20,000
University Of California, San Diego $315,000
North Carolina Agricultural And Technical State University $70,000
University Of Notre Dame DU Lac $140,000
University Of Southern California $90,000

Quick answers

Who received award 2427391?

2427391 was awarded to Purdue University by Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (National Science Foundation) on June 15, 2025.

How much is award 2427391 worth?

$2,800,000 has been obligated on 2427391.

Which agency awarded 2427391?

Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (National Science Foundation) awarded 2427391, with funding from Division of Computer and Network Systems (National Science Foundation).

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