Make a DATE with the Young People Programme

7 Dec 2023 • 3 minute read

Building on the success of previous years, the 2024 edition of the DATE (Design, Automation and Test in Europe) conference will once again include the Young People Programme.

The largest electronic design automation (EDA) conference in Europe, DATE will be held on 25-27 March 2024 in Valencia, Spain. The Young People Programme (YPP) at the DATE conference is an initiative to support PhD and master’s students in their career development. Several initiatives are planned to support that goal.

Sponsorship of Attendance

To enable current master’s and PhD students to attend such a high-profile conference, sponsoring companies and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) will fund registration for the full conference for Young People Programme participants. In addition to the numerous YPP events, the participants will have the opportunity to attend keynotes, focus sessions, tutorials, and networking events.

Apply now to attend!

Industry Careers Fair

Participating companies will post open positions on the HiPEAC Jobs portal and students will be able to upload their CVs. At the conference, the companies will introduce themselves and participate in a speed-dating recruitment event, where recruiters and students can have a short first interview, which will hopefully lead to a follow-up.

There will be a keynote by Matt Venn, science and technology communicator. He will talk about job opportunities created by the open HW movement.

The event will also feature a panel of young industry experts, who will discuss different career paths in microelectronics and adjacent industries.

Registered students will have the opportunity to ask questions to recruiters before the conference in a “Meet the Recruiter” call, to get ready for the job search!

Learn more about the Industry Careers Fair.

GPT Design Contest

This new initiative by the YPP is a contest for teams of students, that will work for 24 hours to create a design by using GPT Tools. The contest is organized by Cadence, Arm, TU Munich, University of Southampton, UNSW (Australia), and Europractice, which will provide the specifications of the design, plus a verification IP to check protocol compliance of the generated design.

Registered student teams will access training material before the conference, to get acquainted with the GPT framework and the target design framework (e.g., any necessary protocols, the verification framework).

Watch the video about the competition and register your team!

Student Teams Fair

Another initiative of the YPP is the Student Teams Fair, which brings together university student teams with EDA and microelectronic companies. Student teams will have the opportunity to present their activities, success stories, and challenges, while companies can provide support (such as free tool licenses, personalized webinars, and financial support) for future activities.

Before the conference, student teams will also get material on what to expect from DATE 2024 and how to identify relevant events, to get the most from this experience.

Learn more about the Student Teams Fair

PhD Forum

The DATE PhD Forum is a great opportunity for PhD students to present their work to a broad audience in the system design and design automation community, and to establish contacts for entering the job market. For their part, representatives from industry and academia get an insight into state-of-the-art research in the system design and design automation space.

More details about the PhD Forum

Academic Careers Fair

It’s not just industry representatives who are looking for top-talent graduates. Academic institutions also need high-potential candidates to support their research in government-funded projects. Programme leaders will promote their research projects and open positions to YPP attendees, so those who want to stay on the academic research path get the chance to learn about these opportunities. Moreover, this year’s fair will feature a workshop on how to write proposals. A skill that you need for the rest of your academic career.

University Fair

The DATE University Fair (previously known as “University Booth”) provides a platform to disseminate mature projects, ideally with a live demonstration. In addition to other academics, this is also of interest to industry, as the outcomes of fundamental research can be potentially applied to commercial products. As there are often follow-up projects, which again need a new generation of researchers, this closes the loop with the Academic Careers Fair.

For further details about the particular events, please contact:

Thank you to Sara Vinco, Marina Saryan, Christian Pilato, Dirk Stroobandt, Nele Mentens, and Nima TaheriNejad for helping to plan this year’s exciting Young People Programme. We can’t wait to see you all in person!