Call For Competition

Following recent editions of the SMACD Conference, SMACD 2018 will hold an event where MSc and PhD students can compete with their best ideas, methodologies, flows and tools with one unique but challenging goal:

“Improving design automation for integrated circuits and systems”.

 

To enter the competition All participants must submit a paper (following the same SMACD 2018 submission guidelines) with a description of the methodology and/or tool, the design problem of their choice and the solution provided by their  methodology and/or tool.

 

 

Topics of interest include

Modeling, simulation and synthesis for analog, mixed- signal, RF, multidomain (such as MEMS, nanoelectronic, optoelectronic, biological). The first author of the submission and presenter at the conference must be a MSc or a PhD student!

 

Important Notes

  • All accepted submissions in the competition will be presented by the students in a special session at the conference and published in the conference proceedings.
  • The presenters are required to perform a live demo. SMACD organization guarantees internet connection to all participants but required CAD tools or design kits licensing is in responsibility of each participant.

 

Winner Prize

The winner of the competition will be awarded with a $1000 prize. The Competition Prize is funded by IEEE CEDA.

 

Important Dates

31st March 2018
Final Paper Submission Deadline
18th March 2018
Paper Submission Deadline
2nd March 2018
Paper Submission Deadline
5th May 2018
Author Notification
15th April 2018
Author Notification
20th May 2018
Camera Ready Submission
30th April 2018
Camera Ready Submission
20th May 2018
Early Registration
30th April 2018
Early Registration

Evaluation Criteria

A Judging Committee will select the winner(s) based on the quality of the paper, of its presentation at the conference and the live demonstration, using the following criteria:

  • Complexity of the problem posed in the paper.
  • Level of automation (e.g., fully automated, semi-automated, ...).
  • Designer interface (e.g., problem setup, result analysis, ...).
  • Applicability of the proposal (e.g., general approach or restricted to special problems, circuit classes or sizes, ...).
  • Integration degree with commercial design suites and design methodologies (e.g., import and export data from these suites, usability in one or more steps of current design fl ows, ...).
  • Robustness of the design solutions (e.g., against parasitics, variability, ...) and of the proposal itself (e.g. convergence, insensitivity to input and/or starting values, ...).

SMACD Competition Jury members

On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the 15th International Conference on Synthesis, Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Methods and Applications to Circuit Design, we are honoured to have the participation of the following members of the Competition Jury:

  • Prof. Dr. Helmut Graeb, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
  • Dr. Vasilis Pavlidis, VP Publicity, IEEE CEDA
  • Adam Kubacak, Allegro MicroSystems, LLC, Czech Republic
  • Pier Cavallini, Dialog Semiconductor, UK