San Francisco State University receives Charles Babbage grant from Synopsys

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: Synopsys Inc. announced that San Francisco State University (SF State) is the latest university to receive the Charles Babbage Grant from Synopsys.

Through the grant, the School of Engineering received licenses of Synopsys' comprehensive electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property, along with curriculum support and professor training.

The grant also enabled the creation of a new Nanoelectronics and Computing Research Laboratory (NeCRL) by providing a new server and compute hardware for students. Research at the NeCRL will be focused on addressing technology scaling challenges at the circuit and architectural levels of design and on designing reliable, energy efficient and high-performance computing circuits in emerging nanotechnologies.

As a result of the Charles Babbage Grant, SF State is developing a curriculum on circuit and system design in nano-scale IC technologies. This curriculum is expected to have a profound impact on the quality of education and to enhance the research capability at the SF State School of Engineering, which is building a vibrant research program in the area of nanoelectronics.

"We have had a successful and collaborative relationship with Synopsys since fall 2008, resulting in the development of new instructional resources and research publications," said Hamid Mahmoodi, assistant professor, School of Engineering at SF State. "The Synopsys Charles Babbage grant is a great way to take our collaboration to the next level."

Synopsys software and silicon intellectual property (IP) provides students and researchers the opportunity to utilize industrial tools for logic and physical synthesis, circuit simulation, nanometer device modeling and fabrication process modeling. Synopsys software and IP serves as the foundation for an industry design flow where students get real-world, hands-on experience building and testing their designs.

"Synopsys selected SF State to receive a Charles Babbage grant because of their commitment to implementing a comprehensive IC design curriculum as well as their leadership and collaboration efforts with other Synopsys Worldwide University Program members," said Rich Goldman, vice president, corporate marketing and strategic alliances at Synopsys.

"Through this grant, we look forward to helping SF State fulfill their mission of educating students to positively contribute to the engineering profession."

Access to industrial design tools for advanced research and microelectronic design is a common challenge facing universities today. Synopsys helps resolve this issue through initiatives like the Charles Babbage Grant and its Worldwide University Program, which provide select universities with design software and IP for modern electronic design flows and leading IC fabrication processes.

Previous grant recipients include Case Western Reserve University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, Moscow Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Purdue University, San Jose State University, Silicon Valley Technical Institute, Southern Methodist University, State Engineering University of Armenia, Syracuse University, University of Southampton and Yerevan State University.