Still in its infancy, yet with bold ambitions – a student initiative focused on chips and semiconductors is emerging at BUT. It is backed Martin Balabán, a student of FME and FP, who, together with his friend Lukáš Lev from FEEC, is currently turning his plans into reality. Activities under the SPICE brand are not yet officially a BUT association, but the founders make no secret of the fact that they have the ambition to become a team that will foster the topic of semiconductors at the university.

Martin Balabán was introduced to semiconductors and chips by his studies of physical engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In his third year, he used the opportunity of a one-month internship to Taiwan. "That's where I got a taste of them, because Taiwan is one of the world's leaders in chip production," says Balabán. And the numbers back up his words: Taiwan accounts for more than 60 percent of the world's semiconductor production and more than 90 percent of the world's most advanced chip production. "It is necessary to realize that the study of physics offers extremely wide possibilities: from theory, through light optics to semiconductors. With exaggeration, I can say that out of thirty students in the year, each focuses on something completely different. I was interested in chips, especially because of how big the chip market is and what it includes," adds Balabán.

In the fourth year, in addition to studying physics, he took up Strategic Business Development at the Faculty of Business and Management and a part-time job at the Department of Microelectronics at FEEC. "Thanks to studying to become an entrepreneur, I am gaining soft skills that I think I have been missing so far. I study management, marketing, basics of economics... I would like to use soft skills during my studies and then in practice. I don't want to be just locked up in a laboratory, so I'm looking for a way to combine technical knowledge with the ability to lead a team or project," says Balabán.

And it seems that he has found his way: the idea of establishing a student association that would focus on semiconductors, chips and solid state physics arose in his head. With his friend from FEEC Lukáš Lev, they are gradually starting activities for which they want to obtain the official status of a BUT student association in the future. They called their team SPICE. "It's an acronym: Semiconductor Physics, Integrited Circuits and Electronics. We wanted the name to be memorable and easy to pronounce. Sometimes we say that students can spice up their lives a little with team activities. At the same time, SPICE was one of the first programs for the design of integrated circuits, and it is still built on its foundations today," explains Balabán.

He himself is a supporter of the association's activities, but as he says, as a physics student, he has not found an ideal job in any of the existing teams. "I joined a formula team for one season, I tried strojLAB... But it seemed to me that students of physical engineering don't participate much in the life of the association, and I think that's a shame. At the same time, I was inspired by the establishment of the Czech Semiconductor Centre at BUT, which is, however, an organization at the European level, so I don't expect much room for student involvement there," says Balabán.

SPICE is not intended to be a place only for physics students, but will offer a space for sharing and education for all fields and specializations that are close to the topic. "The chip ecosystem starts with materials, chemistry, then there is electronics, chip design, someone has to program and test them. There will therefore be space for students from FME, FEEC, FIT, Faculty of Chemistry and others," Balabán hopes. So far, he has received positive feedback from students and teachers, so he and his colleague would like to gradually launch the SPICE initiative.

"We are planning two types of activities: internal, focused on the development of members. That is, a space for sharing, looking beyond the horizon of one's own expertise into other areas related to chips and semiconductors. And there is also an idea for a joint student project on the table, where we could test our knowledge in practice. In addition, we are also planning popularization activities aimed at the general public. We want to show people that although the chips themselves are very complex and sophisticated, everyone can understand the basic principles," says Balabán, adding that SPICE can be followed on LinkedIn and soon also on Instagram.

Last but not least, the team also has the ambition to establish cooperation with companies in the field. "The benefit for companies is clear: they gain access to talented students. In return, we could get, for example, internship opportunities or lectures by industry experts for our members. I believe the potential is great. Just look around and see – you can find chips and semiconductors everywhere," concludes Balabán.