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The summer of 2025, my last summer before going into grinding college applications and learning even more difficult subjects in senior year. I wanted to make it special and memorable, while learning some important knowledge that would benefit me in my future, or get to know the world better. This time, I decided to enroll in a semiconductor IC chip summer camp hosted by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, NYCU.
Semiconductor is always something that I have heard about hundreds and thousands of times, that never fully understood how it works and the purpose it serves. Through this opportunity, I wish to gain more knowledge behind this technology that has made Taiwan, my home country, stand out on the world stage. Overall, my thoughts on this camp before joining were to learn and know my country better.
However, aside from the learning, I also learned many things about soft skills and met many people. The most memorable part of the camp became the teamwork and chemistry that my group developed during the four days. It wasn't only about trying to get the presentation on the last day done, but also about building connections with people around the country and the world.
During the 4 days of the camp, we first learned about basic fundamentals of coding logic and actual physical logic gates designed in IC chips using nMOS and pMOS transistors. We were then brought to a brand new world of Hardware Description Languages, where we had to understand a completely new syntax and solve some problems within a given time, leading to our presentation. The code that we learned was Verilog, which uses similar logic yet a completely different understanding than C++ and Python, since it combines the hardware and the software.
We were introduced to the topic of the presentation on day 2, and we had to fix some of the bugs intentionally carved out from the original program, and then understand the code that was written to perform a game. The presentation should be about introducing the game to someone who has zero knowledge of both coding and the game being programmed. We were tasked not only with the basic problems, but also to understand it fully so that we can introduce it clearly and simply to the judges.
During day one, we successfully fixed the problems of the program, but the logic behind the design of the game was still unknown to us. We figured that for many of us in our team, it is nearly impossible to introduce the program without fully understanding it, even when we know the surface-level logic. To fulfill our eagerness to understand the code, we gathered in the lobby of our hotel to discuss. We were dedicated to figuring out our way out of the complicated FSM (Finite State Machine), and until 4:30, we were grinding and reached a solution just before sunrise.
However, understanding the code wasn't enough; we had to conduct a presentation. In order to explain our knowledge to starters, we need to simplify all the flow charts that we drew, craft a visually appealing slide, and finally give an interactive speech. Starting the day from 7a.m., we went to visit a lot of semiconductor industry-related manufacturers and museums, filling our schedule during the day until 10p.m..
Since we already understood approximately 70% of the code, we only had to craft the perfect presentation to complete our mission in this camp. During the process of creating the slides, we got to proofread our flow chart, and we actually found some problems and logical errors. However, it was not until 5a.m. that we completed all 20 slides. We went to sleep for an hour and woke up again to work on our final step, the speech.
On the last day of the camp, we prepared and practiced for the speech using every second before the actual presentation. Even though we did not manage to control the whole presentation within the amount of time given (still completed all slides), we managed to pull off a very interactive yet introductory speech. The judge had no questions or suggestions for us, and he said that our presentation was detailed and covered all complicated topics while explaining everything on point.
We were delighted that our hard work during the night paid off by completing a presentation that we won't regret. The nervous part comes next, though, which is the award ceremony.
There were two awards in total, and each award had two places; there were sixteen groups competing for these. The first award is the logic design implementation award, while the second award is the communication and presentation award. At last, our team got second place in both awards, which we took two places out of four, and out of 16 teams.
Even though I was really delighted that our hard work had been approved, I still value the time I spent with my teammates discussing and figuring out the whole presentation the most. It was my first time being able to focus on one project so delicately, while having support beside me. It helped me learn how to communicate and distribute the work evenly among people and to lead them through the times when we decided to spend our time on.
I'm really grateful to my parents for letting me join this camp. It is located in Hsinchu, so I had to stay there for 4 days. I'm also grateful for my teammates and all the members of our group for chatting with me, accepting me, and working with me. This camp has been a really unforgettable experience, and I think I will remember it for the rest of my life.
