About Minnesota SCALE
What is Minnesota SCALE?
Minnesota SCALE is a career pathway program built for students in the Twin Cities drawn to the frontier of technology and national security. That frontier is defense microelectronics — the chips and circuits behind everything from smartphones to national defense systems — and one of the most in-demand fields in the country.
Minnesota SCALE brings together local universities and multiple semiconductor and microelectronics companies to connect you — at every stage of your education — with everything it takes to build a career in the field.
That happens three ways: training and research through coursework and laboratory experience; exposure to industry through lectures, mentoring, career fairs, and sponsored research; and hands-on industry training that places you directly inside companies through paid internships.
Why Join Minnesota SCALE?
Microelectronics is where engineering, national security, and the future of AI intersect. The jobs are real, the field is open, and the program is built to get you there.
Minnesota SCALE is open to you if you’re an undergraduate or graduate student interested in or pursuing a degree in engineering, physical science, mathematics, or cybersecurity fields at one of three Twin Cities universities: University of Minnesota Twin Cities, University of St. Thomas, and Metropolitan State University.
MN SCALE starts with training. Our three university partners — the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of St. Thomas, and Metropolitan State University — collectively offer new and expanding coursework and hands-on lab experience that builds the rigorous technical knowledge and training employers are looking for.
From there, it’s about participation. On campus, our university partners collectively offer guest lectures, career fairs, networking events, mentoring programs, senior design and capstone courses, and industry-sponsored research projects — built into your coursework and campus life. With industry, you’ll get site visits to defense microelectronics facilities and paid internships with industry.
Together, these are where you build the skills, relationships, and credentials that translate your academic training into real-world employability.
And it’s all building toward placement. Entry-level full-time positions with defense microelectronics employers and relevant graduate degree programs that keep you moving forward in the field.
Want to learn more about Minnesota SCALE and how to join? Get in touch with your university SCALE point of contact:
University of Minnesota Twin Cities: Claire Dietz at cdietz@umn.edu
University of St. Thomas: Dr. Hassan Salamy at hsalamy@stthomas.edu
Metropolitan State University: Dr. Sena Houeto at sena.houeto@metrostate.edu
To attend Minnesota SCALE events and learn more about internships, follow Minnesota National Security Ecosystem on LinkedIn, check our MN SCALE calendar for upcoming opportunities, or email MNSCALE@natsecmn.org.
Minnesota SCALE and its Partners
Minnesota SCALE is the Twin Cities hub of the national SCALE program, led by Purdue University and managed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division.
Three universities drive curriculum and academic experiential learning: the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of St. Thomas, and Metropolitan State University.
Defense microelectronics companies provide hiring demand, mentorship, and internship opportunities including Alter Technology, Collins Aerospace, ForwardEdge ASIC, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Polar Semiconductor, SkyWater Technology, and Trusted Semiconductor Solutions.
The Minnesota National Security Ecosystem coordinates engagement across the full consortium and manages industry experiential learning.
What is Microelectronics?
Microelectronics is the technology behind smartphones, medical devices, autonomous vehicles, radar systems, secure communications — and the hardware that powers modern AI.
At its core, microelectronics is the science of designing, building, and programming the tiny chips and circuits that make modern technology work — from the processor in your phone, to the guidance systems in a fighter jet, to the GPUs that train and run AI models.
The field operates at two levels:
Hardware — the physical circuitry that makes information processing possible, from the chips in your laptop to the sensors embedded in a spacecraft flight system.
Software — the computing applications that interact with those devices, controlling how data is processed, stored, and acted on.
Defense applications of microelectronics — secure communications, radar, electronic warfare, satellite systems — are among the most technically demanding in the field. AI is embedded throughout: in autonomous systems, signal processing, threat detection, and battlefield decision support. They are also among the most in-demand—the US will have a shortage of 40,000+ semiconductor engineers and computer scientists by 2030-- so employers are actively looking for graduates who understand this field, and they can’t find enough of them.