This award supports a planning visit to enable Professor Xiang-Dong Tan at the University of California in Riverside to meet with Professor Xianglong Hong at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The visit will help develop a collaborative plan for the development of computer-aided design (CAD) tools for physical design and verification of low power nanometer VLSI designs. The PI will finalize many details regarding the collaborative research and partnerships by: 1) preparing a number of joint funding proposals based on the research objectives and scopes; 2) holding a number of meetings with some semiconductor and electronic design automation (EDA) companies' technical representatives to discuss the sponsored research projects; and 3) present seminars to the faculty and students in the Design Automation Lab at Tsinghua University in order for the group to brainstorm new ideas.
Professor Tan has many years of experience on VLSI circuit verification and optimization and Professor Hong is a world-renowned expert on physical design. The expertise and experience of the two faculty members are complementary for the proposed collaborative project, and they expect to collaborate through a coordinated division of labor. In addition to adding significantly to the core knowledge of simulation and optimization for nanometer billion-transistor VLSI designs, the anticipated research will provide unique training and educational opportunities for U.S. graduate students and undergraduate students by enabling them to obtain a global experience. It is anticipated that these early collaborations between the scientists and students from each country will lead to long-term collaborations that will benefit both institutions.
