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On March 8th, communities worldwide will celebrate International Women’s Day. Every year, the day of recognition celebrates the extraordinary achievements of women and brings organizations together to continue the movement for change and empowerment. The theme of 2018 is #PressForProgress, a call to advocacy, activism, and support for gender parity.

Throughout history, women have been making their mark in STEM-related fields. Iconic female pioneers such as Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Grace Hopper, and Mae C. Jemison paved paths for future female scientists and changed the world in the name of science. Fast forward to the 21st century: even more girls and women are breaking the ceiling in the fields of math and science, and we can support their crusade for equal and diverse representation.  

Today, emerging technologies join us at our hips. We walk around with the latest smartphone in our pockets, connected to smart homes and smart vehicles, with access to the cloud everywhere we go. As chip innovation grows, the scope of its technological counterpart affects our jobs. Take a look around, and you’ll see these changes all around you: self-driving trucks, workflow engines, and self-service kiosks.

With the onslaught of new technology, many worry about the threat of a jobless future. But that’s not the whole picture. Automation helps us accomplish specific tasks; complementing our workload and freeing our time to focus on other projects. It provides a stepping stone to even greater advancements.

And it doesn’t stop there. Technology and automation don’t just advance our work—they change the way we work.

For the major players in the semiconductor industry, everyday is a race—a battle of the chips .

Last month, Samsung became the world’s largest chipmaker in revenue. Before, Intel held that prestige for several decades. As AI, deep learning, and machine learning take the world by storm, chipmakers capitalize on future technology. Last year, Nvidia reported an 82% increase in shares when they repurposed their chips from gaming rigs to machine learning. As a result, their capabilities in the AI space and innovative technology cultivated their title as the “smartest company in the world” by MIT. Amid the crowd, Intel invested $15 billion in MobileEye, which produces technology for self-driving cars. AMD released a new line of processor chips that delivers greater performance on cloud and machine intelligence workloads.

There’s a misconception about the underlying reason behind the lack of representation of women and minorities in STEM-related jobs: women and minorities are not choosing to pursue degrees in these fields and therefore not available for hire. It’s easier for recruiters or hiring managers to shrug off the importance of bringing in diverse candidates when they can blame the universities and the lack of graduates coming down the pipeline. But this way of thinking contributes to passive bias and lack of action to find more diverse candidates for STEM positions.

It’s been 50 years since Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore gave us his prediction that would become a rule for chipmakers: the number of transistors per square inch on an integrated circuit doubles every two years. In recent years, Moore’s Law seemed to be shaking hands with the Grim Reaper in the world of semiconductors. Many questioned what would happen to the industry when Moore’s Law reached its end.

Yet, not only has the industry been able to sustain through the final years of the law, but also flourish seeing record setting growth for the global market. So what can we expect from the semiconductor industry in 2018? Let’s weigh in on what experts are saying about the semiconductor industry this year.

While it’s hard to believe 2017 is already coming to an end, the year has not been short on buzz and activity in the semiconductor industry. Each year, we develop our Semiconductor blog to cover the latest semiconductor news and technology trends, and keep you apprised of what’s going on in the world of semiconductor and engineering talent. We want this blog to be a place full of educational resources to keep your engineering team running strong and prepared for wherever the industry is headed. Take a look back on our most popular content from 2017, and be sure you never miss an update from the Semiconductor blog.

After posting the highest-ever quarterly sales in Q3 2017, the global semiconductor industry boasted another $37.1 billion in worldwide sales in October to kick off Q4 2017. October 2017 saw a 21.9 percent increase from the previous year and a 3.2 percent increase from September 2017. That means Q4 2017 began with the highest-ever monthly sales total for the industry. With these record-breaking figures, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) president and CEO John Neuffer believes the global market is “poised to reach its highest-ever annual revenue in 2017.”

As we near the end of the year and the final quarter of 2017, let’s take a look at the industry’s latest news. Read on for the latest on growth, research and development, and other important updates that will finish out one of the biggest years for the industry.

The trend is clear: blended workforces (teams made up of full-time and contingent workers) are growing in popularity. In fact, it’s estimated that 40% of today’s workers are contingent. Many point to the 2008 recession as the genesis of the growing “gig economy,” as widespread layoffs pushed a wave of freelancers into the workforce. Over the years, the trend has continued thanks to advancements in telecommuting technology, the Affordable Care Act and an increasing number of flexibility-demanding millennials.

Comb through almost any tech publication and you’re bound to run across the phrase “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) at least once. In fact, one study found that 2016 saw two times as many articles mentioning AI than 2015 did, and four times as many as 2014.

This growing sector has become a hot topic in recent years as it has the capacity to revolutionize every business across all market sectors. It is likely the semiconductor industry will experience some of the most drastic change, as the chips are the backbone of our most widely used technology today.

To bridge that gap between concept and reality and stand out in their field, engineers today need a potent combination of creativity and technical knowledge. These two skillsets are particularly important in the career of a design engineer as they must take projects from idea to completion and have a complete understanding of the design software that can get them there.