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Ph.D. Forum at DAC

The Ph.D. Forum at the DAC is a poster session hosted by ACM SIGDA and IEEE CEDA for Ph.D. students to present and discuss their dissertation research with people in the EDA community. It has become one of the premier forums for Ph.D. students in design automation to get feedback on their research and for industry to see academic work in progress: hundreds of people attended the last forums. Participation in the forum is competitive with acceptance rate of around 30%. Limited funds will be available for travel assistance, based on financial needs. The forum is open to all members of the design automation community and is free-of-charge. It is co-located with DAC to attract the large DAC audience, but DAC registration is not required in order to attend this event.

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Eligibility

Dissertation topic must be relevant to the DAC community.
Students with at least one published or accepted conference, symposium or journal paper.
Students within 1-2 years before dissertation completion and students who have completed their dissertation during the 2023-2024 academic year. Students closer to graduation will have higher priority since the rest of the students can attend a future Ph.D. Forum with more mature results.
Students who have presented previously at the DATE and ASP-DAC Ph.D. forums are eligible, but will be less likely to receive travel assistance.
Previous DAC SIGDA Ph.D. forum presenters are not eligible.
Students having a conflict of interests with one of the (co-)chairs and/or a member of the evaluation committee are allowed to submit. The submission will then be handled by different chairs/members and the entire evaluation will be completely blind to anyone with a CoI.

Submission Requirements

In order to select the presentations to be featured at the DAC Ph.D. Forum, we are seeking contributions from students who are currently working on their Ph.D. or have recently completed their Ph.D. Corresponding applications have to be submitted through EasyChair and need to include the following two documents:

A two-page PDF abstract of the dissertation (in two-column format, using 10-11 pt. fonts and single-spaced lines), including name, institution, advisor, contact information, estimated (or actual) graduation date, whether the work has been presented at ASP-DAC Ph.D. Forum or DATE Ph.D. Forum, as well as figures, and bibliography (if applicable). The two-page limit on the abstract will be strictly enforced: any material beyond the second page will be truncated before sending to the reviewers. Please include a description of the supporting paper, including the publication forum. A list of all papers authored or co-authored by the student, related to the dissertation topic and included in the two-page abstract, will strengthen the submission.
A published (or accepted) paper, in support of the submitted dissertation abstract. The paper must be related to the dissertation topic and the publication forum must have a valid ISBN number. It will be helpful, but is not required, to include your name and the publication forum on the first page of the paper. Papers on topics unrelated to the dissertation abstract or not yet accepted will not be considered during the review process.

Please Note

The abstract is the key part of your submission. Write the abstract for someone familiar with your technical area, but entirely unfamiliar with your work. Clearly indicate the motivation of your Ph.D. dissertation topic, the uniqueness of your approach, as well as the potential impact your approach may have on the topic.
In the beginning of the abstract, please indicate to which track your submission belongs to.
Proper spelling, grammar, and coherent organization are critical: remember that the two pages may be the only information about yourself and your PhD research available to the reviewers.
All submissions must be made electronically.
Please include the supporting paper with the abstract in one PDF file and submit the single file. There are many free utilities available online which can merge multiple PDF files into a single file if necessary.

topics of interest

System-level Design, Synthesis and Optimization (including network-on-chip, system-on-chip and multi/many-core, HW/SW co-design, embedded software issues, modeling and simulation)
Internet of Things (IoT)
Autonomous Systems
High Level Synthesis, Logic Level Synthesis
Power and Reliability Analysis and Optimization (including power management from system level to circuit level, thermal management, process variability management)
Timing Analysis, Circuit and Interconnect Simulation
Physical Design and Manufacturability
Signal Integrity and Design Reliability
Verification, Testing, Pre- and Post-Silicon Validation, Failure Analysis
Reconfigurable and Adaptive Systems
Analog/Mixed Signals and RF
Hardware Security
Machine learning/AI
Printable and flexible hybrid electronics (FHE)
Emerging Design, Technologies, and Computing Methods (carbon nanotubes, molecular electronics, MEMS, microfluidic system, biologically-inspired systems, quantum computing, etc.)

Travel Support and Best Presentation Award

All presentations selected to be presented at the DAC Ph.D. Forum are eligible to apply for some travel support as well as for getting awarded with a Best Presentation Award. Corresponding information on how to apply for travel support will be provided later to all accepted presenters (however, please note that travel support can only be given to a selected amount of presenters and will only cover a fraction of the actually needed travel costs). The Best Presentation Award is selected by a dedicated committee at the Ph.D. Forum (taking the submission as well as the actual presentation into account). The same CoI guidelines as for submission evaluation apply.

IMPORTANT DATES & INFORMATION

Submission Due: March 28, 2025
Submit a submission for the PhD Forum
Notification Date: May 2, 2025
Location: San Francisco, CA

Contact Information

For questions not addressed on this page, please send an e-mail to the organizing committee (dacphdforum25@googlegroups.com). Please include “DAC Ph.D. Forum” in the subject line of your email.