Chapters Make SSCS Vital Around the World

Ting'ao Tang, SSCS Shanghai Chapter Chair, at their inaugural meeting on 22 March 2003.

Shanghai Chapter — The Shanghai Chapter held an inaugural meeting on 22 March 2003 at the Hotel Equatorial in Shanghai. Seventy-eight people, including members, attended the meeting. The representative of the IEEE Beijing Section and CIE, Mingui Zhou, introduced the IEEE and SSCS activities. The Dean of the Information Science and Engineering School of Fudan University, Professor Liangyao Chen, congratulated the members on the foundation of the Shanghai Chapter. Shanghai Chapter Chair, Professor Ting-Ao Tang, reported the activity plan of the chapter: to recruit new members, to organize seminars, to hold the 5th International Conference on ASIC, and to cosponsor ASP-DAC 2005. Two seminars comprised the remainder of the agenda: Professors Sichang Zou spoke on the "Establishment of the Shanghai semiconductor industrial base" and Shoujue Wang spoke on "An analysis method of high-dimension space geometry and its application in the future digital world." Both speakers are Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Shanghai Chapter meeting, from left to right: Huihua Yu, Shanghai Chapter Secretary and Treasurer; Professor Qianling Zang, Fudan University; Professor Zongsheng Lai, Dean of the Information School of China East Normal University; Shoujue Wang, Academician of CAS; Dengyuan Chen, Vice Chair of Shanghai Chapter and Senior Engineer at IDT-Newave of Shanghai; Ting'ao Tang, Shanghai Chapter Chair and Professor at Fudan University; Professor Gang Ruan, Fudan University; Haiping Yao, President of Shanghai Sheng Jing Electronic Company, Ltd.; Xiaojing Hong, Senior Engineer, Teradyne, Shanghai; Qi Zhong, Vice President of Shanghai Sheng Jing Electronic Company, Ltd.; Junyan Ren, Shanghai Chapter Educational Activities Chair and Professor at Fudan University.

Bangalore Chapter — The formal inauguration of the Bangalore Chapter was held on 16 March 2002 at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. The event was cosponsored by the ECE Department, IISc, Bangalore. On this occasion a one-day workshop titled "Future challenges in the deep sub-micron era" was conducted. The workshop included five invited seminars by experts in devices and circuits. Professor Hiroshi Iwai from Tokyo Institute of Technology gave an excellent introduction on "Silicon technology scaling trend from millimeter to nanometer." The other seminar topics were "Impact of advanced process modules on low-frequency noise in CMOS technology" by Professor Cor Claeys, IMEC, Belgium; "Silicon-on-insulator devices for analog applications" by Professor J. Vasi, IIT, Bombay; "Designing reset systems for mixed-signal VLSI" by Rajat Gupta, Cypress Semiconductors, Bangalore; and "Building in reliability for deep sub-micron devices" by Dr. Radhakrishnan, Phillips, Singapore. The workshop received an extremely good response with about 130 attendees from industry and academia.

From left to right: J. Vasi, C. Claeys, N.Bhat, H. Iwai, M.K. Radhakrishnan, K. Rajagopal, and Makesh Patil at the one-day workshop organized by the new ED/SSC Bangalore Chapter on 16 March 2002.

Denver-Fort Collins Chapter, from left to right: Alvin Loke, Secretary/Webmaster; Albert Wang, SSCS Distinguished Lecturer; Don McGrath, Chapter Chair; Bob Barnes, Treasurer.

Professor Mykhaylo Lobur (on the left), CADSM Conference Chair (sponsored by the West Ukraine Chapter) presenting one of the four Best Young Speaker Awards to Tomash Zacharz.

Denver-Fort Collins, Colorado, Chapter — A seminar at Colorado State University in Fort Collins was held on 11 April 2003. The Distinguished Lecturer, Albert Wang, spoke about "Mixed-mode ESD protection simulation-design for integrated circuits." Dr. Wang is the author of the book On-Chip ESD Protection for Integrated Circuits, is also author of more than sixty papers in the field, and holds several U.S. patents. His talk outlined the principles of ESD simulation-design methodology developed at the Integrated Electronics Laboratory, Illinois Institute of Technology. Practical ESD protection circuit design examples were provided. This lecture was aimed at assisting IC circuit designers in dealing with real-world ESD protection circuit design problems. Pictured on page 12 are Dr. Wang with some chapter officers and a photo of the seminar at Fort Collins.

West Ukraine Chapter - The West Ukraine Chapter cosponsored the 7th International Conference on the Experience of Designing and Application of CAD Systems in Microelectronics (CADSM 2003). The conference was held 18-21 February 2003 in Lviv-Slavsko, Ukraine. Many young scientists, engineers, and students participated at the conference. They presented results of their own scientific investigations, answering questions and hearing the comments of other experienced colleagues.
The CADSM Organizing Committee and the West Ukraine Joint Chapter presented four Best Young Speaker Awards to young authors of the best presentations at the conference's closing ceremony. The awardees were Tomash Zacharz (University of Mining and Metallurgy, Cracow, Poland) for "Application of CF design software to visualization of flow suspension in a prototype settling tank;" Ivan Safonov (National University of Electronics, Kharkov, Ukraine) for "Novel cross-platform laser simulator for quantum well lasers investigation;" Bohdan Dunnets for "Multiblock RAM access controller IP cores generator;" and Pavlo Denysyuk for "Construction problems of the automation system designing of the hydrostatic systems by method of functional blocks" (both from the National University of Lviv Polytechnic, Lviv, Ukraine).

Albert Wang speaking on mixed-mode ESD protection simulation-design for integrated circuits to the Denver-Fort Collins SSCS Chapter in April.

Yugoslavia Chapter — The 24th International Conference on Microelectronics (MIEL 2004) will be held 16-19 May 2004 at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Nis, Serbia and Montenegro.
The topics to be covered by the technical program of the MIEL 2004 Conference include all important aspects of microelectronic devices, circuits and systems, including materials and processes, technologies and devices, device physics and modeling, process and device simulations, circuit design and testing, system design and packaging, and characterization and reliability. Based on the past decade, the technical program is expected to consist of about 150 contributed papers by authors from more than 30 countries all around the world, which will be structured into oral and poster sessions. These authorities in the field of microelectronics will form the solid foundation of MIEL 2004. Two related scientific events, namely the workshops "Power devices and ICs" and "Microsystems technologies," which contain 5 invited papers each, will round off the technical program.
For more information, visit the MIEL 2004 home page at europa.elfak.ni.ac.yu/miel.

SSCS Kansai Chapter's administrative members from left to right: J. Ishikawa (Treasurer), H. Yamauchi (Vice Chair), M. Nakaya (Chair), and M. Nagata (Secretary) meeting on 27 March 2003 in Kitaitami, Hyogo. The chapter has organized two technical tutorials on solid-state circuit designs and applications (one in June and the other scheduled for the autumn), targeting students and young professionals.

Varna, Bulgaria, Chapter — Chapter activities for the past year have included many educational opportunities. Last July a two-week summer school was held on CAD in microelectronics, mainly based on Cadence and Xilinx. The classes featured lectures and discussions by professors from the Technical University (TU) of Varna and TU of Sofia. Professor Gady Golan (EDS) visited the TU of Varna in May, meeting with chapter members and lecturing students and teaching staff from the Department of Electronics. During the first week of September, Professor N. Stojadinovic (EDS) visited the TU of Varna, combining his visit with participation in the ISCMP 2002 in Varna. Professor Stojadinovic met with chapter members and lectured students and teaching staff. Chapter officers were elected in December 2002.

Varna, Bulgaria, Chapter, from left to right: Nikolaj Nikolov, Vice Chair, and Jordan Kolev, Chair.