It was a workshop organized by the International Alliance of Nanotechnology Regions, an Albany-based economic development group seeking to develop industry clusters around the world centered on nanotechnology -- the driving force behind the invention of smaller and more powerful computer chips.

That new nanotechnology work force is already being trained, even though AMD's chip fab isn't expected to be completed by 2012 at the earliest.

Hudson Valley Community College is preparing to graduate its first class of semiconductor manufacturing workers next spring.

Five students are in the final year of a two-year semiconductor manufacturing technology program, a rigorous course of study with electronics, chemistry, physics and advanced mathematics required, in addition to semiconductor manufacturing classes.

"That's demanding, and the students are doing exceptionally well," said Phil White, dean of business, engineering and industrial technologies at HVCC.

During the spring term, HVCC students will train on sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing equipment at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. UAlbany is picking up most of the cost of $6,000 per student, more than double HVCC's tuition fees.

"It's a unique opportunity for our students," White said. "That exposure these students are going to have is phenomenal."

White said the five students will look to be hired after graduation, possibly by UAlbany's nanotech college, which has $3 billion in government and private industry investment for research and development into the semiconductor manufacturing industry at its Albany NanoTech complex and clean rooms.

Officials from Schenectady County Community College said they are in the final stages of creating a new nanoscale materials technology degree program that must get state approval.

The keynote speaker at Tuesday's workshop was Michael Lesiecki, director of the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center in Tempe, Ariz. MATEC, as it is known, is affiliated with Maricopa Community Colleges -- a consortium of community colleges and other education centers in the suburban Phoenix county. It designs semiconductor manufacturing education curriculum for community colleges.

Lesiecki stressed that the semiconductor industry is cyclical -- for instance, companies like AMD and its rival Intel Corp. have had to slash jobs during downturns -- and so the regional work force must be nimble.

"Don't be known as the AMD program," he said. "If AMD cycles, you want your students to have a broader experience that they can take with them."

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.