2025 Summer Scholar Decision Status – Slightly behind the Jan 7 date for final decisions
Early decisions have been communicated. We are running behind the January 7 target date for communicating the final decisions.
2024-2025 Call for Proposals announced for Seed/Equipment Grants
The Virginia Microelectronics Consortium (VMEC) funds annually proposals for seed and/or equipment grants from member Virginia Universities. The 2024-2025 Call for Proposals (for 2025 funding) is posted below and the submission deadline is November 8, 2024. The VMEC Industry members will evaluate the proposals. The VMEC Executive Committee at their January 2025 meeting will decide the funding level and approve proposals. Both the seed and equipment grant proposals will be combined into one evaluation pool and ranked ordered by the VMEC Industry Partners (i.e. equipment and seed grant proposals will not be separately evaluated and awarded). Approved funds will be awarded in January 2025 following the Executive Committee meeting. VMEC Equipment/Seed Grants are for a period of one year and a final report is due within one year of your project Award. The number of grants is subject to the availability of funds. PI’s may submit for a seed grant in addition to a related equipment grant. If the proposals are co-dependent (the seed grant requires the equipment grant for example) this should be clearly stated in the proposal. A PI may only submit for a maximum of one grant of each type.
Note that Seed Grants or Equipment Grants are not intended to supplement other larger proposals with the same goals, but rather should have an independent research focus. The maximum amount of the seed or equipment grant can vary from year to year at the discretion of the VMEC Executive Committee.
For more information: https://vmecteam.org/vmec-equipment-and-seed-grants/
Congratulations to 2024 VMEC Gold Scholars
Congratulations to the following scholars for receiving the VMEC Gold Scholar recognition at the August 12, 2024 VMEC Poster and Oral Presentation Session.
- Marjorie Cenese from Old Dominion University ( internship at Micron Technology)
- Tyler Hayworth from Virginia Tech (internship at Micron Technology)
- Paul Kelemen from William & Mary (internship at Virginia Commonwealth University)
- Julia Rodrigues from William & Mary (internship atGeorge Mason University)
Pictured (left to right) Dave Bostedo (BAE Systems, Chair of VMEC Operations Committee), Murty Polavarapu (VMEC Managing Director), Paul Kelemen, Tyler Hayworth, Marjorie Cenese, Julia Rodrigues and Peng Cheng (Virginia State University and VMEC Summer Scholar Chair)
2024 Summer Scholars Announced
VMEC is pleased to announce the selection of the following students as VMEC Summer Scholars for 2024.
| Scholar | University | Will be working at |
| Matthew Jackson | Old Dominion University | BAE Systems |
| Sebastian Parker | William & Mary | BAE Systems |
| Yohannes Zena | Virginia Tech | BAE Systems |
| Michael Liang | Virginia Tech | George Mason University |
| Julia Rodrigues | William & Mary | George Mason University |
| Aaron Brookins | Virginia Commonwealth University | Micron Technology |
| Marjorie Cenese | Old Dominion University | Micron Technology |
| Zane Gunn | University of Virginia | Micron Technology |
| Tyler Hayworth | Virginia Tech | Micron Technology |
| Nathan Marchetti | Virginia Commonwealth University | Micron Technology |
| Justin Vinluan | George Mason University | Micron Technology |
| Elieen Sawyer | William & Mary | Norfolk State University |
| Phi Lu | University of Virginia | Old Dominion University |
| Connor Martin | William & Mary | University of Virginia |
| Robert Merriman | Virginia Commonwealth University | University of Virginia |
| Ksenia Avrutina | William & Mary | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Paul Kelemen | William & Mary | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Samuel Turner | William & Mary | Virginia State University |
| Arthur Hill | Old Dominion University | Virginia Tech |
| Nicolas Pollard | Virginia State University | Virginia Tech |
| Diayla Copeland | Hampton University | William & Mary |
| Justin Sumrele | Old Dominion University | William & Mary |
2024 Seed Grants Announced
VMEC is pleased to announce that the following two proposals have been selected for funding this year.
- Ion Implantation Strategy modulating charge and thermal transport properties for high performance narrow-gap Semiconducting Thermoelectric Materials for innovative use in nonvolatile (ReRAM) memory arrays – Helmut Baumgart, Old Dominion University; Mariusz Orlowski, Virginia Tech; Qilang Li, George Mason University
- From TinyTapeout to Chip Designer – Mircea Stan, University of Virginia
VMEC Operations Committee Leadership Update
VMEC is happy to announce that David Bostedo from BAE Systems, has stepped up to be the new Chair of the Operations Committee. Dave has served the VMEC most recently as the Summer Scholars Chair. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Mircea R. Stan from the University of Virginia for his leadership as the Chair of the Operations Committee over the past two years. We are also delighted to welcome Peng Cheng from Virginia State University, who has enthusiastically embraced the role of the Summer Scholars Chair.
2023 VMEC Seed Grants Announced
VMEC is pleased to announce that the following two proposals have been selected for funding this year.
1) Ultralow-power straintronic switch implemented with a nanomagnet and a topological insulator for “processor in memory” architectures
Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Virginia Commonwealth University and Avik Ghosh, University of Virginia
2) Inter- and Intra-Array Thermal Cross-Talk in Stacks of Resistive RAM Memory Cells
Marius Orlowski, Virginia Tech; Hani Elsayed-Ali, Old Dominion University; and Hannes Schniepp, William & Mary
2023 Summer Scholars Named
VMEC is pleased to announce the selection of the following students from our participating educational institutions as VMEC Summer Scholars for 2023.
| Scholar | University | Will be working at |
| Alison Aldrich | Old Dominion University | Micron Technology |
| Farhan Babar | George Mason University | BAE Systems |
| Joshua Blum | Virginia Commonwealth University | Virginia State University |
| Michaela Bochman | Old Dominion University | BAE Systems |
| Andrew Cash | George Mason University | Micron Technology |
| Grace Cha | William & Mary | Micron Technology |
| Vik Diederich | William & Mary | University of Virginia |
| Khang Diep | George Mason University | BAE Systems |
| Connor Grimberg | George Mason University | Micron Technology |
| Brian Janicki | William & Mary | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Zhiang Jiao | University of Virginia | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Elizabeth Kwari | George Mason University | Micron Technology |
| Bernadette Kwari | Virginia Commonwealth University | Micron Technology |
| William Mbandi | Old Dominion University | Virginia Tech |
| Robert Merriman | Virginia Commonwealth University | Norfolk State University |
| Jennifer Shern | University of Virginia | Norfolk State University |
| Kevin Su | William & Mary | George Mason University |
| Justin Sumrell | Old Dominion University | William & Mary |
VMEC Leadership for 2023-2024 Year
As per bylaws, the current Vice Chair, Dr. Khan Iftekharuddin (Old Dominion University) will take over as VMEC Executive Committee Chair on July 1, 2023. The Executive Committee, at its meeting on January 18, 2023 elected Mr. Delbert Parks (Micron Technology) as Vice Chair and Dr. Scott Barker (University of Virginia) as Treasurer for the 2023-2024 year.
