20th Anniversary
Oct 14-18, 2024
Los Altos High School
Raashina Humayun
Chemical Engineer
Lam Research
Is there Sand in my Phone? How Science and Engineering Converts Sparkly Grains of Sand into the Components that Drive our Electronic Devices
Engineering
We will talk about sand, wafers and chips but no, we will not be going for a picnic on the beach. Rather we will go a fascinating journey that starts with highly pure silicon dioxide aka sand to make silicon wafers which then go through 100s of steps in factories that cost billions of dollars to finally make chips! The flavors of chips include the processor, the working memory, flash storage, sensors and many more. We will talk about some of the amazing science and engineering processes that go into making these components that are at the heart of all our electronic devices. We will talk about the semiconductor industry and how it constantly has to innovate to make these devices faster, more powerful, smaller and cheaper!
Meet the Speaker:
Raashina is an Engineer who came to United States after completing her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. She holds a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University. She worked at Lam Research Corporation, a Silicon Valley Semiconductor Equipment Company for nearly 2 decades. She is passionate about engineering, design and innovation, holds more than 50 patents and has lead path breaking technical advances in the semiconductor industry that are embedded in most devices we use today. Raashina is currently taking an Arts and Humanities Sabbatical, dipping her toes in Theatre and Oral HIstory, looking to broaden her experience from STEM to STEAM!