Engineer Week Webinar Series: FUTUR-IC: A 3-dimensional path towards building a resource-efficient microchip industry
25 February 2026 11:00 - 12:00
Engineer Behind the Breakthroughs is a special Engineer Week webinar series spotlighting the innovators shaping the future of optics and photonics. Across three live webinars, Optica Members and engineers will go beyond the headlines to share the real stories, challenges, and problem-solving that drive groundbreaking technologies. From early career lessons to cutting-edge applications, this series offers an inside look at the people, paths, and perseverance behind today’s most impactful engineering advances.
National security and economic prosperity depend on a resilient and innovative semiconductor industry. In this Engineer Week 2026 webinar, Dr. Anu Agarwal, Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Microphotonics Center and Materials Research Laboratory, will examine how the microchip sector is confronting growing constraints related to cost, materials, manufacturing viability, and workforce readiness. As traditional transistor scaling reaches its limits, Dr. Agarwal will highlight how initiatives such as FUTUR-IC bring together industry, government, and academia to advance integrated solutions across system technology, value chain innovation, and workforce development, helping sustain performance scaling and power the next 40 years of U.S. innovation and economic growth.
By attending this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Identify key technology, value chain, and workforce constraints shaping the future of the semiconductor industry
- Understand why next-generation microchip performance can no longer rely solely on transistor scaling
- Explore how integrated, cross-sector solutions support sustainable growth, national security, and domestic leadership
