WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.--The United States government wants to create 20 tech hubs across the country, which will come with high-paying jobs and likely will be inviting to other businesses. Purdue University may be a potential candidate, being the first university to offer a semi-conductor degree and with two-thirds of its students studying technology.
“Remarkable leadership across the board in making sure here at Purdue that the United States remains the great technology leader across the world,” said U.S. Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, in a visit to Purdue last week.
Also there was U.S. Sec. of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
“The opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs in the semi conductor industry all over America, including in the heartland, right here in Indiana,” remarked Raimondo. “And Purdue, what’s happening here is at the center of that.”
The “Chips Act” will allow new development, which Purdue President Mitch Daniels said the university is ready to be a part of.
While chips will be manufactured at SkyWater Technology in Minnesota, the company signed an agreement with Purdue to partner to build a $1.8 billion support facility in West Lafayette.
“We feel profoundly our responsibility to turn out as many high-class new talents for this state and nation as we can, to contribute to the economic vitality of state and nation,” he said on the day of the visit, adding that several companies were scouting the area that day.
Daniels told Inside Indiana Business that Purdue has a special opportunity and responsibility to lead the way in the new technology.
“People describe semi-conductors as the oil of the next economy or the one we’ve entered,” he said. “So, if we can be as the secretaries believes, and as I have believed, a home for much of that, this would be a whole new era of jobs and economic hope for our state.”
While the secretaries visit was to tour the labs and facilities at Purdue, they are on a larger mission to determine the homes for the coming technology hubs.
