The purpose of the DAC/ISSCC Student Design Contest is to promote excellence in the design of electronic systems by providing competition between graduate and undergraduate students at universities and colleges. The Student Design Contest is jointly sponsored by DAC and its sponsors, ISSCC as well as the corporate sponsors named above.

40th DESIGN CONTEST WINNERS

OPERATIONAL CATEGORY
1st Place (Best Overall)
A Computationally Efficient ASIC Implementation for the Decoding of Space-Time Block Codes
Enver Cavus, Babak Daneshrad - Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA
2nd Place
A Low-Energy Chip-Set for Wireless Intercom (Session 52.2)
Josie Ammer, Michael Sheets, Tufan C. Karalar, Mika Kuulusa, Jan Rabaey - Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA
3rd Place
Energy-Aware Design of a Real-Valued FFT
Alice Wang, Anantha Chandrakasan - Massachusetts Institute of Tech., Cambridge, MA

CONCEPTUAL CATEGORY
1st Place
A 16-Bit Mixed-Signal Microsystem with Integrated CMOS-MEMS Clock Reference (Session 31.1)
Robert M. Senger, Matthew Guthaus, Eric D. Marsman, Michael S. McCorquodale, Fadi H. Gebara, Keith L. Kraver, Richard B. Brown - Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2nd Place
An Integrated Thermally-Based Microflow Sensor
Masoud Agah, Yang Li, Robert M. Senger, Kensall D. Wise - Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Towards A Button-Sized 1024-Site Wireless Cortical Microstimulating Array (Operational)
Maysam Ghovanloo, Khalil Najafi - Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Design Flow for HW/SW Acceleration Transparency in the ThumbPod Secure Embedded System (Conceptual) (Session 5.1)
David Hwang, Patrick Schaumont, Yi Fan, Alireza Hodjat, Bo Cheng Lai, Kazuo Sakiyama, Shenglin Yang, Ingrid Verbauwhede - Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA
Analog Turbo Decoder Implemented in SiGe BiCMOS Technolgy
Wei Huang, Vinay Igure, Garrett Rose, Yan Zhang, Mircea Stan - Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Design of a High Performance Security Coprocessor
Yunqing Chen, Jun Cheng, Tsung Hsing Hu, Jerry Kao - Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

CRITERIA FOR ENTERING THE CONTEST (SUBMISSION)
    Student Design Contest submissions are invited from full-time graduate and undergraduate students. Both integrated circuits and electronic systems designs (board-level design) are encouraged. The design must have taken place as part of the student's course or research work at the university and must have been completed within 18 months of the submission deadline.
    There are two categories for all Student Design Contest submissions: 'Operational' and 'Conceptual'. Operational designs have been implemented and tested. Proof of implementation in the form of die- or board-photographs and measurement data must be supplied. Conceptual designs need not have been implemented but must have been thoroughly simulated and must include a test plan.
    Submissions are made electronically via the DAC web site. Student Design Contest papers should include and abstract and should not exceed 4000 words. The deadline for submission is December 12, 2003, 5 pm MST.
    It is appropriate for a professor to be included as a co-author if he/she was instrumental in the student(s) approach to the design, or provided other guidance that contributed to the success of the design.
    Submissions are judged by a panel of experts including members of the DAC Technical Program Committee and other representatives from the industry. Judging criteria includes originality, soundness of engineering, measured performance and the quality of the written submission. Winners will be notified in mid-February.