While Dr. Thomas W. Williams retired from Synopsys as a chief scientist and Synopsys fellow in 2009, the industry hasn’t forgotten him. Not in the least. He is this year’s recipient of the Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design presented by the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). 

Dr. Williams’ contributions to design testability are so numerous, impressive and widespread, one blog post can’t include everything. Instead, I direct you to the news release (https://bit.ly/2wso31y) and a news article from EE Times (https://ubm.io/2Pgvq37), and hope you will help us fete him at an award ceremony and dinner. It will be held Wednesday, November 7, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at The GlassHouse in San Jose, Calif.

The Phil Kaufman Award is our industry’s more prestigious award and honors individuals who have had a demonstrable impact on the field of electronic system design through technology innovations, education/mentoring, or business or industry leadership. From all accounts, Dr. Williams is well deserving of the award established as a tribute to Phil Kaufman, the late industry pioneer who turned innovative technologies into commercial businesses that have benefited electronic designers. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for Research at the University of Pittsburgh, recognized for his pioneering contributions to algorithms and tools for analog and mixed-signal designs.

Please join us in honoring Dr. Williams. Registration information is available at http://bit.ly/2MwQdCN.

A reminder that first up in our Fall Events Calendar is “Crossing the Chasm: Building a Startup to a Successful Exit” with Jim Hogan and Amit Gupta. Open to the semiconductor and electronic system design ecosystem community, the event will be held Thursday, September 13, starting at 6 p.m. at SEMI’s corporate headquarters, 673 S. Milpitas Blvd. in Milpitas, Calif. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. and the conversation will start at 7 p.m.

Amit is a well-known member of the electronic system design ecosystem who was co-founder of Solido Design Automation Inc. and served as its president and CEO until it was acquired by Mentor, a Siemens Business, in 2017. Jim, a long-time member of Solido’s board of directors, will interview Amit, now general manager, IC Verification Solutions Solido at Mentor, about his experience growing the two companies from startup to a successful acquisition.

The evening is open free of charge to all ESD Alliance member companies and is included in attendee registration for the Electronic Design Process Symposium (EDPS) held at SEMI’s corporate headquarters. Non-members and guests can attend for a fee of $50. Registration information can be found at: http://bit.ly/2KOxQU0

Also, we continue our informative Digital Marketing Event Series with OneSpin’s Nicolas Athanasopoulos and Dave Kelf from Breker Wednesday, October 3. Dinner and networking from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. will start the evening. The Digital Marketing Workshop 2.0, “Agility, Training and Collaboration –– The three key ingredients to master digital-driven marketing and sales,” will run from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. It is designed for CEOs, marketing executives, content creators or other from the semiconductor industry interested in improving their company’s content marketing strategy. The cost for ESD Alliance member companies is $30. The fee for non-members is $75. A blog post with more details will follow shortly.

Please send comments, feedback, questions and suggestions to me at bob@esd-alliance.org

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