Tech war: Stanford-educated expert leads China's new semiconductor school with YMTC support
Liu Sheng, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford in 1992, has been appointed as the inaugural dean of the new school.
At an opening ceremony on Thursday, he said the school's establishment followed 'an in-depth exploration of the strategic needs of the country' and served as 'a powerful response to technological chokepoints', according to a statement posted on the university's WeChat account.
On the same day, the school signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Wuhan-based
Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) , China's leading memory chip manufacturer.
YMTC is known for its 3D NAND flash memory technology, which stacks transistor dies vertically to increase storage density. The company's technology has reportedly been used by South Korea's Samsung Electronics.
A sign at YMTC's Silicon Valley office. Photo: Shutterstock
YMTC chairman Chen Nanxiang, who attended the event, said the partnership aimed to 'explore a new model of integrating industry with education' to 'cultivate all-round talent with both theoretical foundations and engineering skills'.
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