LOUISVILLE, Colo. –– April 10, 2012 –– Dr. Belle Wei, Don Beall Dean of the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at San Jose´ State University will be awarded the 13th annual Marie R. Pistilli Women in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Achievement Award at the 49th Design Automation Conference (DAC) in San Francisco, CA. on June 4, 2012. The award honors Wei for her leadership and personal and professional contributions to women in the industry.
The award presentation and a conversation with the Marie R. Pistilli Award Winner will take place from 4:30 until 5:15pm on June 4th, 2012, in the DAC Pavilion, Booth # 310 with Daya Nadamuni, advisor, GarySmith EDA. The conversation promises to be lively and interactive.
“Belle Wei, the first endowed dean at the SJSU College of Engineering, has spearheaded a long term transformation of the college to educate students to become engineers and immediate contributors in a global workplace,” said Karen Bartleson of Synopsys, Chair, Women in Electronic Design. “It is an honor to present her with this award.”
About Belle Wei
Since her 2002 appointment as Don Beall Dean of SJSU's Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, Dr. Belle Wei has led a College dedicated to educating engineers who can take on today's problems and produce tomorrow's solutions.
Dr. Wei's began her career at SJSU in 1987 as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering after completing an engineering M.S. from Harvard and an electrical engineering Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley with specialties in VLSI circuit theory, special architectures, and sensor networks. Following a 1993-94 Stanford visiting associate professorship, Dr. Wei returned to SJSU where she was later elected Electrical Engineering Department Chair from 1998-2002. Thereafter, she accepted her current position as Dean (reappointed for a second six-year term in 2009). Dr. Wei is the first person in her College's history to hold an endowed deanship.
Amid an era of economic challenges and uncertainty, the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering has increased its extramural grants to nearly $3.3 million per year and increased its endowment gifts by 400% from $7 million to $35 million under Dr. Wei's leadership. Industry partnerships have also been strengthened through several initiatives, which include the creation of several endowed professorships, the implementation of the Silicon Valley Engineering Scholarship, and the tripling of corporate master's degree programs from five to fourteen during Dr. Wei's tenure. Corporate partners for these programs include Silicon Valley companies, such as Applied Materials, KLA/Tencor, Lam Research, Lockheed Martin, IBM, and BAE Systems.
Dr. Wei extends her service beyond SJSU through active engagement in national and international organizations. She serves on the Executive Board for the Engineering Deans Council of American Society for Engineering Education, chairing its Committee on Diversity. She has served on several National Science Foundation panels. And she has assumed numerous leadership roles on program committees for technical conferences.
About the Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award
Women have made important contributions and strides in the EDA industry for over 50 years. In an effort to recognize those who have dedicated time towards these achievements, the DAC Executive Committee presents the Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award to honor an individual—male or female-- who has made significant contributions in helping women advance in the field of EDA technology. For a list of previous recipients of the Award, please click here.
About DAC
The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is recognized as the premier event for the design of electronic circuits and systems, and for electronic design automation (EDA) and silicon solutions. A diverse worldwide community representing more than 1,000 organizations attends each year, represented by system designers and architects, logic and circuit designers, validation engineers, CAD managers, senior managers and executives to researchers and academicians from leading universities. Close to 60 technical sessions selected by a committee of electronic design experts offer information on recent developments and trends, management practices and new products, methodologies and technologies. A highlight of DAC is its exhibition and suite area with approximately 200 of the leading and emerging EDA, silicon, intellectual property (IP) and design services providers. The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Consortium), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is supported by ACM's Special Interest Group on Design.
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