Ireland produces more microchip design engineers than Japan but, at 150 a year, it's still not enough. Despite the downturn in high-tech industries, the demand for chip designers continues to grow, says Prof Michael P Kennedy of the department of microelectronic engineering at UCC. When companies are downsizing the last people to go are the design engineers, he says: "Some companies have laid off people in production, but they are still recruiting design engineers."

In the five years between 1995 and 2000, the number of chip designers working in the Republic increased fivefold, to 1,000. By the year 2005, however, we will need more than 2,500, Kennedy says.

To meet the skills shortage in the area, UCC has introduced a new degree in microelectronic engineering. Some 20 new places have been created on the first year of the electrical/electronic engineering course.

Students take a common first year and then choose to follow the microelectronic route or the electrical/electronic route.

Eventually, UCC hopes to produce up to 50 graduates specialising in microelectronic design and technology. Microelectronic engineering involves the design and manufacture of microchips. The microchip industry has grown by 16 per cent per annum over the past 30 years.

It is set to become the world's largest manufacturing industry by 2015 and will be worth over one trillion dollars.

Microchip design is a very exciting area in which to work, Kennedy says: "You're involved in designing the future and working at the limit of what is possible. It's a very creative and stimulating working environment."

As a career, it is financially rewarding and highly transportable. "You can move all over the world," says Kennedy.