On December 11, 2024, the official inauguration of the SoC4sensing Chip Chair and the Chip Classroom was held in the Board Room of the II-i Building School of Engineering of Bilbao.

The SoC4sensing Chair is a public-private initiative whose main objective is to promote the design of “Chips” in the Basque Country for Industry, Energy, and Aerospace through training, research, and dissemination of microelectronics.

During the opening day, institutional interventions were made by the Director of the School of Engineering of Bilbao, Dr. Charles Pinto; the Director of the Chair, Dr. Armando Astarloa; the Vice Rector of Research, Dña. Inmaculada Arostegui and the representatives of the sponsors of the Chair: Dr. Mikel Idirin, CEO of System-pm-Chip engineering S.L. ; Dña. Elena Zárraga, President of the GAIA Cluster; Dr. Jon Pérez Cerrolaza, Director of the Embedded Electronic Systems and Cybersecurity Unit of Ikerlan.

The following papers were presented at the conference:

PERTE CHIP
Dr. Jaime Martorell Suárez is the special commissioner of PERTE (Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation) of Microelectronics and Semiconductors; he updated the key aspects of PERTE Chip and its potential impact on companies in the sector.

Jaime Martorell is a historic manager in the ICT (information and communications technology) sector who has spent his professional career between Spain and the USA. Founded in 1987, he returned to Spain to hold the position of general manager of ATT Microelectrónica. Subsequently, he has been president of Motorola in Spain and general manager of ONO.

SEMICONDUCTOR MARKET
Dña. Belén Matilla, director of the largest multinational semiconductor distribution company (AVNET-Silica), presented the demand forecast for semiconductors in the medium and long term.

In their speech, they highlighted the opportunities offered by the sector for solutions that respond to the new challenges facing key sectors for the Basque Country, such as Industry, Energy, Automotive, and Aerospace.