Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.’s Fall Signature Event on Nov. 8 drew about 200 people to celebrate the storied past and bright future of the Lehigh Valley’s technology industry.

The event, sponsored by Intel®, included speakers and panelists from Intel®, Broadcom, iDEAL Semiconductor, Lehigh University, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development. 

They told the crowd at Iacocca Hall at Lehigh University why the Lehigh Valley is home to about 30 technology companies that employ about 1,500 people – because there is a deep pool of skilled workers here.

And they explained what must happen for that ecosystem to grow – more talent must be developed.

Talent is Key

“It's like so many advanced industries, it really is about the talent and the people,” said Wayne Barz, Chief Investment Officer at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

There is a big need for new workers in the technology industry, in a wide range of roles, said Doug Dopp, Senior Director of Manufacturing at Broadcom.

In July, the Semiconductor Industry Association, in partnership with Oxford Economics, released a study projecting a shortfall of 67,000 technicians, computer scientists, and engineers in the semiconductor industry by 2030 across the U.S.

“It's everything from a PhD in material science, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, to a high school educated person,” Dopp said. “We do a lot of training and on-the-job training and skills training. Ideally, we would like a two-year technical degree in electronics or manufacturing or something like this.”

He said Broadcom, which employs about 350 people in the Lehigh Valley and operates a wafer fabrication facility in Upper Macungie Township, wants to grow.

“We're looking at increasing our capacity here, growing more,” Dopp said. “Our business is doing very, very well.”

Mike Burns, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at iDEAL Semiconductor in Bethlehem and a partner in Murray Hill Group, said technology firms invest in places where there is sufficient talent.

“I go where the talent is,” he said. “The talent draws the money. So, when I'm making an investment, even looking to start a company, remember, it's 100% about the talent.”

“Lehigh Valley, because of the people, can be a place to invest,” Burns said. “And that's why we're doing so.”

Barz said a long-term solution to increasing the workforce is to increase the number of college graduates entering the field. And that begins with having more high school students enroll in college with those careers in mind.

“I know when I went to Lehigh, it seemed like every other person was an electrical engineer. And now there just aren't so many of them. So, we have to restart that,” Barz said.

“One of the other ideas that we talked about as a group was, hey, let's make sure that we're reaching out into the high schools and letting them know about some of these industries that exist,” he said.

One way for the technology industry to beef up its workforce is to tap people who are leaving the military, Burns said.

“We have an obvious source. We have the largest military budget in the world,” he said. “We have systems operators trained with discipline, that understand accountability, who come out and look for jobs. Don't encourage them to be salesmen. Get them in a fab.”

The Lehigh Valley has been a hotbed of talent because of Western Electric/Bell Labs and its successor companies, including Lucent and Agere, that set up shop here seven decades ago. In 1951, Western Electric started the first mass production of transistors, the forerunner of semiconductors, in Allentown.

“When I was at Lucent, I would walk down the hall to talk to the guy that wrote the standard. That’s how talented they were, that's how advanced they were, back then in the ‘90s. I want that expertise that was born here, bred here. I want it to grow here,” said Ed Pullin, IP Marketing Director in the Network Edge Group at Intel®, in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

While some of that talent has remained, too much of it has slipped away to places such as Silicon Valley, Burns said. When he worked in Silicon Valley, people there reminisced about their time in Lehigh Valley.

“The Kevin Bacon game was played, you know, how many steps removed from Bell Labs are you? And so, everyone knew Lehigh Valley, they just talked about when they had lived there.”

“I think we can change that,” Burns said.