UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is launching a new semiconductor hub with initial support from several industry partners. (Photo by Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe University of California at Los Angeles is partnering with several leading technology companies — including Broadcom, Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries, Meta and Synopsys — to launch a $125 million Semiconductor Hub at its Samueli School of Engineering. The new hub will focus on research and workforce development in artificial intelligence-powered chip technologies.“UCLA is uniquely positioned to bring together expertise across disciplines to push the frontiers of semiconductor innovation and translate that knowledge into scalable solutions,” said UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, in a release from the university. “The Semiconductor Hub at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering reflects our commitment to forging partnerships with industry in a field critical to economic vitality and national security.”A combination of philanthropic gifts and in-kind support will be used to underwrite an initial five-year commitment for the hub, whose multidisciplinary teams will conduct research and teaching in several areas, including chip design, software, manufacturing, equipment and advanced materials. Mona Jarrahi, UCLA Samueli’s Northrop Grumman Professor of Electrical Engineering, will serve as the hub’s faculty director. The hub will support UCLA’s engineering doctoral students as they conduct research, and the founding companies will provide yearlong internships for students as well.Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of Engineering at UCLA, said that the vision for the new hub emerged from a conversation with Henry Samueli, after whom UCLA’s college of engineering is named. Samueli, who chairs the board of Broadcom, has three electrical engineering degrees from UCLA, earning his bachelor’s in 1975, master’s in 1976 and doctoral degree in 1980. Over the years, he and his wife, Susan, have made several gifts to UCLA’s engineering school that exceed $189 million. Forbes pegs his net worth at more than $38 billion.“Henry cofounded Broadcom while teaching at UCLA, underscoring the school’s strong position to help drive semiconductor innovation for a new era of AI," Park said. "We are thrilled to partner with our founding member companies to share a bold vision addressing both the opportunities and challenges that will define the next decade and beyond.”MORE FOR YOUAI technologies are revolutionizing computing and leading to rapid advances in several fields, including improved diagnostics and healthcare, safer transportation systems, greater energy efficiency, improved packaging, enhanced financial security and better global connectivity. The UCLA hub will embody a collaboration between industry leaders and academic researchers to study these areas and address important challenges in connectivity, computing and intelligent systems, while also being guided by considerations of privacy, cybersecurity and the ethical use of such technology.The hub will also explore emerging technological frontiers, which the release indicated would include “real-time artificial general intelligence inference at the edge, self-optimizing data centers and next-generation communication systems spanning radio frequency, terahertz and optical domains. These advances are expected to support applications in autonomous vehicles, robotics, environmental monitoring and space-based systems, which will improve safety, resilience and global connectivity.”Yee Jiun Song, Meta’s vice president of engineering, said “UCLA’s Semiconductor Hub is tackling some of the most important challenges in computing — from energy-efficient chip design to advanced packaging — and we’re excited to support research that can help scale innovation across the industry.”