Consolidated cleanroom course focuses on advanced facility construction

Consolidated cleanroom course focuses on advanced facility construction

By Susan English-Seaton

Tempe, AZ — In an effort to cater to the growing number of cleanroom industry professionals in need of education in design/build and controlled environment technology, a semester-long program has been condensed into a one week course.

Offered by Arizona State University`s Del E. Webb School of Construction (Tempe, AZ), the course is an offshoot of the university`s semester-long program, now in its second year, which prepares engineering students for cleanroom design.

Response to the undergraduate program has been so encouraging, according to pro gram coordinator and Assistant Professor Allan D. Chasey, Ph.D., P.E., that the framework for a master`s de gree program on the advanced technology facility has already been developed.

Chasey claims it`s the only university course of its kind specifically focused on the advanced tech nology cleanroom facility (semiconductors, biotechnology, pharmaceutical). The difference between this program and those offered elsewhere is that it focuses on teaching the construction aspect of cleanrooms (as opposed to process).

The curriculum for the university`s semester-long program was developed two years ago, when program coordinators were approached by Motorola, which was having difficulty finding enough people with the right training and background to work in the cleanrooms in its semiconductor fabs. They worked with the university to come up with the semester-long course, Chasey explains. From that program evolved a short course.

Currently, the program (both the semester- and week-long courses) focuses on basic infrastructure, design and construction, structural vibra tion, ultrapure water systems, air-flow management, project management, estimating, sched – uling, and gas and dis tri buted chemicals.

“As we mature, we are going to be developing courses on tool installation and renovations,” Chasey says.

Participants can choose from two program sessions in 1998: March 16-20 or Oct. 12-16.

For more information or to register, call the Alliance for Construction Excellence, which is sponsoring the program, at (602) 965-5324, or Chasey at (602) 965-7437.

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