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Chip Chat LIVE

From screen to table.

Chip Chat Coffee does not have to live online. Put two chairs, one table and a cup on a stage, invite the right guest, and let the audience ask the last questions. That is Chip Chat LIVE.

Venkatesh Kumar Pandurengan speaking with a microphone in front of a presentation screen
UniversitiesConferencesFabsTechnology parksInnovation centresIndustry eventsSemiconductor exhibitionsPolytechnics

One table. One conversation. Many possibilities.

Talks & panels

Topics Venkat is asked for, and the ones he asks to give.

Building India's semiconductor workforce by doingWhy fabs need technicians as much as PhDs, and how on-the-job training, mobile labs and polytechnics fill the gap faster than curriculum reform.
Capital attracts projects. Execution builds industries.The execution gap in India's fab and ATMP/OSAT programmes, and the five pillars that close it.
Inside a fab startup: 1,400 tool installs laterWhat actually happens between the crate and the first production wafer, told from Micron Fab10 and the programmes since.
Localisation and supply-chain resilienceSpares, subfab, services and precision fabrication: the local ecosystem a fab needs at 2 a.m., and how to build it.
AI on the fab floor, one tool at a timeFrom fault detection and process control to predictive maintenance and digital twins, and how to train engineers to own the loop.
ATMP/OSAT first: India's fastest path to scaleWhat the back end offers a new ecosystem, what a Detailed Project Report must get right, and lessons from the HCL–Foxconn programme.
Inclusion is capacityOpening advanced manufacturing to specially-abled individuals, and what was learned building programmes that actually do it.
Sivakasi to Silicon Valley via SingaporeA career talk for students and young engineers: how a diploma holder from a fireworks town ended up starting fabs.

How a LIVE session runs

Relaxed on the surface. Prepared underneath.

Every format below is built so the room leaves with something concrete, not a warm feeling.

Format 01

The LIVE table

Forty-five minutes with one guest on stage: two chairs, a table and a cup. The last fifteen minutes belong to the room.

Format 02

Keynote

Thirty to forty-five minutes built around one of the topics above, with the interactive fab walk-through projected live.

Format 03

Campus workshop

Half a day for engineering colleges and polytechnics. Hands on the subject, and every student leaves with a next step.

Format 04

Closed-door briefing

For government, investors and boards. Fab and OSAT readiness, execution risk, and what the schedule is really telling you.

On the road

Stages, exhibition floors, labs and whiteboards.

Where these conversations have already been happening.

Forums & ecosystem bodies

Where the conversation already happens.

A regular participant and speaker in semiconductor leadership forums, ecosystem roundtables and industry conferences, advocating workforce development, manufacturing localisation, advanced manufacturing infrastructure and supply-chain resilience.

KDEMKarnatakaAPEITAAndhra PradeshTIDCOTamil NaduIDSPSiNEMIBharat Semiconductor SocietymentorWOW India FoundationWafer on Wheels Semiconductor Foundationhonorary chairmanIEEE Hyderabad SectionworkshopTamilpreneur

Media kit

For organisers and editors.

Copy what you need. For a high-resolution headshot or a specific bio length, write to venkatesh.opusmind@gmail.com.

Short bio (60 words)

Venkatesh Kumar Pandurengan is a semiconductor manufacturing and infrastructure leader with 22+ years across FABs, ATMP/OSAT facilities and semiconductor equipment engineering. He has contributed to six fab startups and three ATMP/OSAT programmes and led 1,400+ equipment installations worldwide. He is General Manager – India at PTW Asia, Honorary Chairman of the Wafer on Wheels Semiconductor Foundation, and host of Venkat's Chip Chat Coffee.

Titles for introductions

  • Host, Venkat's Chip Chat Coffee
  • Semiconductor Manufacturing & Infrastructure Leader
  • Ecosystem Builder & Strategic Advisor
  • General Manager – India, PTW Asia Pvt Ltd
  • Honorary Chairman, Wafer on Wheels Semiconductor Foundation
  • Mentor, Bharat Semiconductor Society
  • Author, Sivakasi to Silicon Valley via Singapore (forthcoming)

Long bio (150 words)

Venkatesh Kumar Pandurengan is a semiconductor manufacturing and infrastructure leader with more than two decades of global experience spanning FABs, ATMP/OSAT facilities, semiconductor equipment engineering, cleanroom integration, EPCM/PMCM coordination and ecosystem development. Beginning as a technician in Sivakasi, he built his career on the fab floors of Infineon, ASE and Micron in Singapore, where he led a CVD module team through the Fab10 300 mm startup. In India he has built engineering teams of 450+ and a 500+ member semiconductor workforce for global OEMs including Applied Materials, Lam Research, ASML, TEL, KLA, Intel and Micron, and led the Detailed Project Report for the proposed HCL–Foxconn ATMP/OSAT facility. As General Manager – India at PTW Asia he leads equipment lifecycle and infrastructure services for India's semiconductor projects. He hosts Venkat's Chip Chat Coffee, mentors at the Bharat Semiconductor Society and chairs the Wafer on Wheels Semiconductor Foundation.

Practicalities

  • Based in Bengaluru; travels across India and to fab sites worldwide
  • Comfortable in English and Tamil
  • Needs: two chairs, a small table, a microphone, and a screen if the interactive walk-through is used
  • Recording and photography welcome; student sessions through the foundation are always free

Chip Chat LIVE

Bring the table to your campus, conference or plant.

Tell us the audience and the room. The rest is two chairs and a kettle.