Thai Nguyen loves to play with optics. When he was a young boy in Vietnam, he was so fascinated with optics that he made his own telescope for fun so that he could view the heavens.
Jason Lawrence started out as an art major at the University of Michigan. Then he took an organic chemistry course and realized, unlike most undergraduates, he actually enjoyed the class. So he took another chemistry course and then another, and eventually he switched his major to chemical engineering.
Engineers are drawn to the field for many different reasons, but one thing they share is the passion they have for engineering. Tapping into this passion is what a smart company will do, because by enabling their employees to grow and flourish, so grows the company. And, perhaps more importantly, it leads to the overall advancement of society and technology.
KLA-Tencor is one of those smart companies. A leading global semiconductor equipment manufacturer, KLA-Tencor is always looking for ways to enable their employees to perform at their highest level, and they’ve found one way to inspire and advance their engineers.
Partnering with San José State University’s Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, KLA-Tencor has worked with the college’s Graduate & Extended Studies (GES) office to customize a systems engineering graduate program in optoelectronics for its employees. It’s a two-year program, with students taking twelve eight-week courses. During each eight-week course, students meet in the evening and on two Saturdays. SJSU faculty teach the courses at KLA-Tencor’s Milpitas campus. Thai and Jason are part of a cohort of 16 employees from KLA-Tencor who will graduate in December 2009 with an interdisciplinary master’s of science degree in engineering.
The company philosophy is that self-development enables personal growth, professional success and industry development. Rick Wallace, President and CEO of KLA-Tencor, used to teach, and so he knows the value of an inspired individual: “If you have a motivated employee, it’s a pretty good investment because they’re going to grow and their view of the world will expand.”
This philosophy of growth permeates the KLA-Tencor culture. Rick Ankiel, Product Lifecycle Director, said, “we want all of our engineers to be growing here, whether they’ve been in the industry a long time or are brand new to the industry.” Jason, a Systems Design Engineer who has been with the company for eleven years, epitomizes this. Realizing he was the only person in his group without an advanced degree, he decided to pursue a master’s.
Another important factor for the program’s success is that the content for the coursework is tailored to KLA-Tencor’s employees’ needs. This means that oftentimes course content leads to immediate application in the work place. Jason’s experience in the program attests to this: “I think San José State’s program is very well suited to what I’m doing with my job. I work very frequently with optics and optical systems, and their program is right up my alley. I had looked at Stanford’s graduate program, and then KLA-Tencor announced the SJSU corporate graduate program, and it was the perfect fit.”
For many students, one of the best things about the program is its convenience. Trying to juggle a full-time job and a family isn’t easy. Eric Quam and his wife just had a baby, their second child. A Product Engineer in the Surface Inspection Systems Division, Eric loves the commute from his desk to the KLA-Tencor classroom. “Honestly, you can’t ask for a better location. Having a commute that takes me five-minutes to walk is something that can’t be beat.”
Why would a high-tech company implement this kind of program? Zain Saidin, Chief Engineer and Group Vice President, explains it with this example: “Say I have a mechanical engineer. She’s moving up, she’s ready to take over and manage more people. The organizational chart says that she is going to be managing two software engineers and three electrical engineers. Before she moves into the position, it would be good for her to know something about software engineering and electrical engineering. Unless we give people a way to fill in gaps in their knowledge, the only thing we can do is wait for on the job training to take hold, and that’s a slow process.”
Ahmed Hambaba, Associate Dean of Graduate and Extended Studies at the College of Engineering, understands KLA-Tencor’s needs: “The college provides the largest number of engineers to Silicon Valley, and we want to continue to meet the region’s needs. Through this customized program, our curriculum remains fresh and relevant, and KLA-Tencor’s engineers are able to broaden their learning and add value to their company.”
Going back to school, working full-time and having a family is challenging, but the benefits of the SJSU corporate graduate degree program are worth it. And sometimes students are surprised by a new discovery. Thai, a Senior Mechanical Engineer in the program, developed his passion for optics as well as discovered a new interest. “We learned digital imaging, and I fell in love with this. I could go in and open a picture and see a pixel, dot by dot. Each dot has a different color, and you can manipulate it mathematically. That’s amazing to me. It completely opened my eyes to a different field.”
KLA-Tencor’s partnership with the SJSU College of Engineering has enabled its employees and its company to advance and grow. It’s a win-win situation, and in these challenging times that’s great news.
The San José State University Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering offers customized corporate master’s-degree programs through its Graduate & Extended Studies (GES) office. GES provides an accelerated master’s program to accommodate the lifestyles of technical professionals, who want to advance their careers. Students can obtain a master’s of science in engineering (MSE) or pursue a dual MSE degree and an MBA simultaneously. Single degree programs typically last 24 months; dual-degree programs typically last 36 months. Classes are held at the company’s site or at the Rose Orchard Tech Center in the evenings and on weekends. For more information, go to www.engr.sjsu.edu/ges.
