Santosh K. Kurinec is a Professor and Department Head of Microelectronic Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Visiting Scholar at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, New York. She received Ph.D degree in Physics from University of Delhi, India. She came to the US to participate in the Alternative Energy Technology program funded by the USAID during the eighties. Prior to joining RIT in 1988, she was Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Florida State University/Florida A & M University College of Engineering in Tallahassee, FL. She worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL from 1985-1986 where she researched on thin metal film composites. Her current research activities include advanced integrated circuit materials and processes, photovoltaics, III-V on Si, tunnel devices, and magnetic thin films. She received the RIT Trustee Scholarship Award in 2008 and was honored as the Engineer of the Year finalist by the Rochester Engineering Society in 2008. She has been actively engaged in outreach for promoting engineering education. She is a Senior Member of IEEE, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Education and an IEEE EDS Distinguished Lecturer.

Abstract
Over the last several decades, photovoltaics (PV) has been an on again and off again type of technology for engineering community while scientific laboratories and niche industries worldwide have remained diligently committed in achieving higher efficiencies and lower costs. The economic and political will has been deferring photovoltaics as the technology for the future.
The attention is on to PV once again and it is the time for engineering community to take the challenge that semiconductor industry took since the development of the first integrated circuit. The growth of innovative techniques that enabled the integrated circuit technology to become efficient in high volume manufacturing of extremely small and complex systems on large substrates sets up a sound base for the PV industry. Between the two, they share a common substrate - silicon and common thin film deposition techniques. Photovoltaic contrasts itself from CMOS in being relatively simpler in device physics, relaxed in lithography and particle contamination controls. However, it differentiates in applications that require large area end products, much larger than the flat panel displays, and be available at lower costs. Even though the PV industry inherits an experienced workforce trained in defining and following the roadmap driven by the Moore's Law, engineering education needs to address developing the next generation of PV engineers. The talk will discuss the principles and technology of emerging frontiers of PV and how semiconductor manufacturing can offer lessons and solutions.