Design Automation Conference Professional Development Fund to Award More than $165,000.

BOULDER, Colo. -- The Design Automation Conference (DAC), the electronic design automation (EDA) industry's premier event, today announced that together with several sponsoring societies it is awarding more than $165,000 in professional development funds to students and professionals in the EDA field. These funds, which bring the total amount awarded during the past twelve years to more than $3.57 million, will be presented at the 43rd DAC, July 24-28, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The DAC Professional Development Fund supports a range of programs, including the Engineering Scholarship Program, the P.O. Pistilli Advancement in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Program, the University Booth Program, the Young Student Support Program, the DAC Graduate Scholarships and the Student Design Contest. DAC also supports the Workshop for Women in Design Automation, the Integrated Design Systems Workshop, and the ACM/Special Interest Group on Design Automation (SIGDA) Ph.D. Forum.

"DAC has a strong commitment to supporting continuing education through the professional development fund," said William Joyner, the 2005 DAC chair, who oversees the DAC Professional Development Fund. "It has a tremendous impact on the EDA community and helps contribute to the future success of the industry."

Programs Receiving DAC Professional Development Funds:

The P.O. Pistilli Advancement in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Program, funded by DAC and by the IEEE Circuits and System Society, promotes advancement in electrical engineering and computer science through scholarships aimed at graduating high school seniors and undergraduate students from under-represented groups in engineering, including women, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and the physically challenged. Scholarships of $4,000 per year, renewable for up to five years, are awarded annually to two to seven high school seniors who have demonstrated high achievement in math and science courses, have expressed a strong desire to pursue careers in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science and who have demonstrated substantial financial need. Additional information is available at http://doc.union.edu/acsee.html.

The SIGDA/DAC University Booth Program provides an opportunity for the university community to demonstrate EDA tools, design projects, and instructional materials at DAC. The University Booth also provides space for the presentation of EDA vendor literature and programs of interest to the university community. The SIGDA/DAC University Booth, organized and run by SIGDA volunteers, is sponsored by DAC, EDAC and the ACM Special Interest Group on Design Automation, who together will contribute $42,000 in booth space, equipment and travel support. Additional information can be found online at http://www.sigda.org/programs/Ubooth/Ubooth2006/.

The Young Student Support Program encourages advanced undergraduate students and first-year graduate students to join the EDA profession or pursue graduate studies in this field by introducing students to DAC and the design automation profession through meetings, tours, and association with a mentor who is an advanced graduate student already working in the area. This year's program expects to grant $28,000 for students' registration fees and banquet tickets, and to help with travel expenses. More information on this scholarship can be found at http://atrak.usc.edu/~studprog/.

The DAC Graduate Scholarships program will award $48,000 in scholarships to support graduate research and study in electronic design automation and circuit design. These scholarships are intended to support graduate students of faculty investigators at universities trying to establish new programs in electronic design automation or circuit design and/or graduate students of young faculty investigators (assistant rank, non-tenured) working in EDA or circuit design. Additional information can be found at http://www.dac.com/43rd/scholar.html.

The DAC/ISSCC Student Design Contest promotes excellence in the design of electronic systems by providing competition between graduate and undergraduate students at universities and colleges. Supported by participating companies, as well as DAC and ISSCC, the contest accepts entries in both integrated circuits and electronic systems, and will award more than $19,000 to recognize undergraduate and graduate students who demonstrate excellence in the development of operational and conceptual designs. Additional information can be found at http://www.dac.com/43rd/studcon.html.

The 2006 SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC is one of the premier forums for Ph.D. students in design automation to get feedback on their research and for the industry to see academic work in progress. The 2006 SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC will be held between 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 in Room 310 of the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Additional information can be found at http://www.sigda.org/daforum.

About DAC

DAC is the premier forum for the electronic design industry to exchange information on products, methodologies and processes. Attended by more than 10,000 developers, designers, researchers, managers and engineers from leading electronics companies and universities around the world, DAC includes nearly 250 exhibitors and offers a robust technical program covering the electronics industry's hottest trends to bring people to the event.

The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (ACM/SIGDA), the Circuits and Systems Society and Computer Aided Network Design Technical Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE/CASS/CANDE), and the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Consortium). More details about DAC are available at: www.dac.com.