Women in Technology @ DAC

The 59th DAC invites all attendees to multiple events during the conference to highlight innovations, contributions, and achievements of women in technology and address the growing needs of professional women in the semiconductor field. Come network and inspire future generations to confidently follow and outpace the women leaders in our field.

For more information on women in technology events at DAC or to be part of DAC’s diversity and inclusion committee for 2022, please contact Pawini Mahajan, Synopsys Pawini.Mahajan@synopsys.com.
 


Marie R. Pistilli Women in Electronic Design Award

The Marie R. Pistilli Women in Electronic Design Award is a prestigious annual honor that recognizes individuals who have visibly helped to advance women in electronic design. The award is named for the late Marie R. Pistilli, former organizer of DAC, who placed a high value on equality, diversity, and acceptance.

Nominations for the Marie R. Pistilli Women in Electronic Design Award for 59th DAC are now closed. 

2022 Marie R. Pistilli Award Recipient

Michelle Clancy
President and CEO - Cayenne Global

For more than 25 years, Michelle has contributed time, effort and insight into EDA companies and the DAC itself. In her roles in corporate and most prominently as president of Cayenne Global, Michelle has been passionately dedicated to helping scores of EDA and silicon ecosystem companies grow and succeed. She has communicated compelling, engaging stories about the vital benefits of design automation. Additionally, as a volunteer, she’s worked tirelessly to promote, expand, evolve and improve DAC for more than 20 years. In 2018, for such efforts, she was honored with the Distinguished Service award from the ACM/SIGDA, of which she is a member.

Michelle began her EDA career in the 1990s, as design automation was fast accelerating as a crucial and growing enabler of electronics systems. She soon found herself building marketing and communications campaigns for some of the biggest companies in the business, during the golden age of EDA. Among her early achievements was being a key member of the marketing team following the merger of ArcSys and ISS, that branded Avant!, as a leading EDA firm in the sub-nanometer era. Michelle was an integral part of the product-marketing team that helped weave in the products and technologies. This included place-and-route technologies that became Apollo and its Star RC extraction tool (now Synopsys), that is now the EDA industry’s gold standard for parasitic extraction. Next came, launching Mentor Graphics’ Calibre product, which became the de facto standard in DRC/LVS.

n 1998, Michelle took her passion for marketing technologies and nurturing companies into the agency world, joining Cayenne Communications (now Cayenne Global). In 2005, she took the helm of Cayenne and since then, she has worked with more than 80 companies including the major technology innovators in the EDA, IP, and semiconductor industries and recently expanding into AI and embedded markets. She has supported her clients to build awareness of their products, presence at events and hone their messaging to position themselves for growth, IPO or acquisition. Over the years, her success has stemmed in large measure from her ability to help “translate” deeply technical product details from the front end of design to the back end into memorable campaigns and communications that help drive companies’ business goals. As she built on her early successes in a largely male-dominated industry at the time, Michelle focused much of her attention on finding ways through internships and hiring to expose young women to the technology industry.

 
Past Recipients of the Marie R. Pistilli Award
  • 58th DAC, 2021 - Renu Mehra, Synopsys, Inc.
  • 57th DAC, 2020 - Alessandra Nardi, PhD
  • 56th DAC, 2019 - Iris Bahar, Brown University 
  • 55th DAC, 2018 - Anne Cirkel, Mentor, a Siemens Business
  • 54th DAC, 2017 - Janet Olson, Synopsys, Inc. 
  • 53rd DAC, 2016 - Soha Hassoun, Tufts University
  • 52nd DAC, 2015 - Margaret Martonosi, Princeton University
  • 51st DAC, 2014 - Diana Marculescu, Carnegie Mellon University
  • 50th DAC, 2013 - Nanette Collins, Nanette V. Collins Marketing, and Public Relations
  • 49th DAC, 2012 - Dr. Belle W. Y. Wei, San Jose State University
  • 48th DAC, 2011 - Limor Fix, Intel Corp.
  • 47th DAC, 2010 - Mar Hershenson, Magma Design Automation, Inc.
  • 46th DAC, 2009 - Telle Whitney, Anita Borg Institute
  • 45th DAC, 2008 - Louise Trevillyan, IBM Research Center
  • 44th DAC, 2007 - Jan Willis, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
  • 43rd DAC, 2006 - Ellen Yoffa, IBM
  • 42nd DAC, 2005 - Kathryn Kranen, Jasper Design Automation, Inc.
  • 41st DAC, 2004 - Mary Jane Irwin, Pennsylvania State University
  • 40th DAC, 2003 - Karen Bartleson, Synopsys, Inc.
  • 39th DAC, 2002 - Ann Rincon, AMI Semiconductor
  • 38th DAC, 2001 - Deidre Hanford, Synopsys, Inc.
  • 37th DAC, 2000 - Penny Herscher, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (previously)

2022 Marie r. pistilli award Steering Committee:
Ann Steffora Mutschler | Semiconductor Engineering

Anne Cirkel | Siemens

Joerg Henkel | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
 
Helen Li, Ph.D.  | Duke University

Frank Schirrmeister | Cadence

Pawini Mahajan | Synopsys

Renu Mehra | Synopsys
 
For questions or information please contact:

Michelle Clancy 
59th DAC Publicity/Marketing Chair 
michelle.clancy@cayennecom.com

 

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