Unite! Journey through the silicon world

EU Chips ACT 2030

In 2023, the European Union adopted the European Chips Act - a groundbreaking regulation that set an ambitious goal: by 2030, Europe should account for 20% of the global semiconductor production, whereas today its share stands at merely ~9%. A total of 43 billion euros in public and private investments have been allocated to realize this plan.

This context sparked the entire project. Dawid Linek from the strategic KN Solvro at Wrocław Tech and Yurii Chubenko from the Board of European Students of Technology Graz (BEST Graz) at TU Graz decided to respond to this European ambition with a grassroots student initiative. Together, they applied for funding under the Unite! Seed Fund for Student Activities - a fund supporting collaboration between universities in the Unite! network, to which both Wrocław Tech and TU Graz belong.

This is how the project “Journey Through the Silicon World" was born, a student exchange aimed at confronting young engineers with the real world of the semiconductor industry: chip factories, clean rooms, and research laboratories. The project also aimed to build lasting relationships between student communities in Poland and Austria, ultimately culminating in an interactive educational website explaining - from a grain of sand to a finished processor - how silicon is made, on which the entire modern world of technology relies.

The project was sponsored by the Vice-Rector for Cooperation with the Community at Wrocław Tech, Prof. Dr. Eng. Renata Krzyżyńska, and was carried out in cooperation with the Center for National and International Relations at Wrocław Tech.

Trip to Graz - European Silicon Valley

In May 2025, a group of members from KN Solvro set out for Graz - a city aptly dubbed the "European Silicon Valley." Over five intensive days, participants had the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the industries shaping the future of technology.

The first stop was the headquarters of ams OSRAM, one of the global leaders in the field of light and sensor technology. The so-called Clean Room made the biggest impression on the participants: a special room with strictly controlled environmental conditions, entered only in a special suit. The reason is simple, even microscopic specks of dust can irreversibly damage the semiconductor circuits being produced.

The next stage was a visit to Silicon Austria Labs, a research center focused on microelectronics and integrated circuits. Participants learned about current research projects and heard about the future direction of the European semiconductor industry.

Completing the technical program was a visit to the Technische Universität Graz, where students visited numerous research laboratories. One was dedicated to studying the impact of ionizing radiation on semiconductor circuits, a topic so niche that most participants had heard about it for the first time. The visit was rounded out with themed lectures given by the university's academic staff.

An integral part of the trip was the integration organized by the local BEST Graz. Evenings filled with board games, conversations over Austrian cuisine, and joint city exploring showed that learning and a good atmosphere go hand in hand. All participants returned to Wrocław full of knowledge and positive energy, eagerly awaiting the second phase of the project.

Trip to Wrocław

In October 2025, the roles were reversed. This time it was the students from TU Graz who came to Wrocław, with KN Solvro acting as hosts. For four days, the Austrians could experience the Polish technological and academic scene.

The program of company visits was carefully selected. XTPL, a Wrocław startup operating at the intersection of nanotechnology and precision printing, showcased its nanoprinting technology, which is used in the production of displays and electronics. Balluff, a company specializing in sensors and industrial automation, demonstrated how sensory solutions are implemented in modern manufacturing plants. Wrocławskie Centrum Sieciowo-Superkomputerowe (WCSS) opened its doors to its computational infrastructure, one of the largest of its kind in Poland. The participants also had the opportunity to learn about the Odra 5 quantum computer.

The visit to Wrocław Tech brought further discoveries. The guests toured the laboratories of the Faculty of Electronics, Photonics, and Microsystems, including the university's Clean Room, in collaboration with the Science Club NaMi, specializing in nanotechnology. Thanks to this, students from Austria could see how a Polish technical university approaches research in the field of microelectronics.

Free time was filled with sightseeing in Wrocław: walks in Ostrów Tumski, integration on Wyspa Słodowa, and a panoramic view from one of the tallest buildings in the city, SkyTower. Austrian students explored Wrocław from many perspectives, and Solvro proved to be an excellent host.

Journey through the Silicon World

The project did not end with exchanges. Its final element was an interactive educational website that, in an accessible and visual manner, explains how modern processors are created from grains of sand.

The site guides users through the subsequent stages of silicon production: from purifying quartz sand (to a purity of 99.9999999%), through growing a monocrystalline ingot with the Czochralski method, cutting and polishing wafers, to photolithography - printing billions of transistors at the nanoscale and final chip packaging and testing.

The site is available in two language versions and is set in a broader context: it includes a section on the European Chips Act, explaining why semiconductors have become a strategic resource for Europe. It also presents both student organizations and documents the exchanges with a photo gallery.

It serves not only as a memento of the project but primarily as educational material available to any engineering student who wants to understand what modern technology truly stands on. The site is available at https://unite.solvro.pl

Summary

„Journey Through the Silicon World" proved that students can be active participants in European industrial policy - not only as future engineers but already as organizers of initiatives that genuinely broaden the horizons of their peers.

The project combined three dimensions: technical (visits to companies, clean rooms, laboratories), international (cultural exchange, building relationships between Polish and Austrian communities) and educational (a page explaining the world of semiconductors to a wide audience).

For KN Solvro, it was also an experimental ground in areas that rarely appear in the club's daily activities: project management in an international environment, negotiations with industrial partners, logistics coordination in two countries, and communication in English at every stage of implementation.

The project was carried out by KN Solvro in collaboration with BEST Graz, funded by Unite! Seed Fund.  Special thanks to:

• Vice-Rector for Cooperation with the Environment of Wrocław University of Science and Technology prof. dr hab. inż. Renata Krzyżyńska for patronage of the project
• mgr. Adrian Naciążek for project coordination on behalf of Wrocław Tech
• mgr. Dariusz Więcławski for project accounting on behalf of Wrocław Tech 
• Honorata Poturaj SLO for administrative support from Wrocław Tech
• Dr. Konrad Löbcke for support from Unite! Darmstadt
• KN NaMi for project substantive support
• City of Wrocław for city tours