King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) launched its first digital lab to serve as an online platform for distance mastering semiconductor fabrication.

The fab lab, brief for Virtual Fabrication Lab, is an internet-primarily based digital surroundings designed to assist schooling on semiconductor device fabrication procedures and associated complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) era. The digital lab, developed via the Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Science and Engineering department (CEMSE) at KAUST, trains customers to give up end-to-end device fabrication collection using nicely-tested procedure protocols. Each training consultation is observed by way of an interactive Q&A consultation.

KAUST launches first digital lab for distance gaining knowledge of 1

“I changed into inspired by way of the imaginative and prescient to offer to get entry to hundreds of students and different fans who do now not have access to high-priced cleanroom facilities,” stated Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, a professor inside the electric powered engineering program at CEMSE.

“fab lab intends to provide the important detail missing in online education, which is an experimental module via labs,” he delivered.

At the postgraduate degree, distance studying is a gateway for college students around the arena to have an open get entry to understanding and to have interaction with educational substances and tactics profoundly extraordinary from their customary ones.

“Distance mastering is a critical device to provide more suitable studying opportunities to our globally mobile pupil population,” said Dr. Tony Chan, president of KAUST.

“In everything we do, we aim to be forward-searching. Distance studying suits flawlessly with this intention,” Chan delivered.

KAUST’s first involvement in distance studying happened in 2017, inside the CEMSE department. CEMSE and Blue Waters Online Course co-produced a MOOC (massive open online direction) on excessive-performance computing proposing Professor David Keyes, director of the Extreme Computing Research Center (ECRC) at KAUST. Two years later, the fab lab becomes added, taking e-getting to know to the following level.

“The virtual lab is an interesting idea to take a branch of science that has constantly been gated through the provision of a high-priced lab,” stated Professor Mootaz El-Nozahy, dean of CEMSE. “At KAUST, we’re seeking to take this idea to the farthest, thereby sharing our infrastructure with the arena.”

The fab lab turned into offered on April 24 in the course of a webinar prepared and hosted with the aid of the IEEE Electron Devices Society.

Established in 2009, KAUST is a graduate-stage research university located on the shorelines of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. The college is devoted to advancing technological know-how and technology thru interdisciplinary studies, education, and innovation. Research carried out via college students, college, scientists, and engineers targets to cope with the arena’s urgent clinical and technological challenges associated with meals, water, energy, and the surroundings.