#54 DAC, 2: Executive committee members you need to know (and your first slate of deadlines)

Time is the only critic without ambition. – John Steinbeck

Like many things, DAC looks decidedly different depending on where you sit, and how you experience it.  As an attendee, it’s mostly a few days at the start of every summer where you can sample some of the best technical content on the design of circuits and systems, plus get the chance to network and have some fun with a worldwide audience that spans execs to undergrads. In contrast, as a member of the executive committee, DAC is the finish line for a year-long marathon effort to bring the best content, speakers and papers all together in one place and time, building on what works and improving where we can.

Now is the time for a reminder that if you want present a paper at DAC (especially a research paper), the 12-month calendar matters for you as well. Abstracts are due Nov. 15; manuscripts, Nov. 22!       ­

Find all the details on how to submit here.  Don’t forget that DAC has evolved through the years and conference themes now include electronic systems and software (ESS), design, IP, the internet of things (IoT), automotive, security, and of course electronic design automation (EDA). As for why you should submit, these papers remain the foundation of DAC, with conference proceedings now representing more than a half-century of work solving some of the toughest and most important technical challenges on Earth.

And no, I don’t think that’s hyperbole, though as general chair I’m granted license to some. Check out the National Academies list of top 20 engineering achievements of the last century. Computers and electronics occupy just two places on the list, but without them most of the other world-changing innovations wouldn’t have been possible. (Okay, so maybe without DAC, we’d still have interstate highways. But they wouldn’t have speed traps without DAC!)

Here’s something else that’s no exaggeration: there is an very accomplished set of people serving as committee chairs working behind the scenes to plan and execute #54 DAC. Each of these people also have other very demanding jobs and lives, and they serve on a volunteer basis on the DAC EC. Some of them are the first readers of your abstracts and papers.

A few EC members you need to know now, given this month’s deadlines:

• Valeria Bertacco, University of Michigan, technical program chair (in charge of research manuscript submissions)
• Anand Raghunathan, Purdue University, special session chair (special session proposals); Anand is new to the executive committee and we’re thrilled to have him!
• Ramesh Karri, New York University, panel chair / security chair (panel proposals)
• Ramond Rodríguez, Intel, tutorial chair (tutorial proposals, workshop proposals, colocated conference proposals)

And don’t forget ARM’s Robert Aitken, program chair, helping to coordinate the work Valeria, Anand and Ramesh, and review the research papers coming in to this trio of world-class academics. (Seriously, check out their Google Scholar pages. They have answers!)

One other thing to know as you work on your abstracts (just 100 words, c’mon!) and manuscripts: these EC members, diverse backgrounds and all, share a commitment to presenting a stellar DAC in Austin next June. That much was obvious when we all convened for a planning session several weeks back in the Santa Cruz Mountains at my home. (Below the whole gang.)

The novelist John Steinbeck built my home, and the swimming pool we stand in front of; and his epigram above about time is as true today as when he wrote it. Time may not be ambitious but we certainly are when it comes to showcasing the best collection of technical papers ever in the #54 DAC proceedings.

So start working on that abstract today!

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