Nine Years of Empowering the Next Generation of Chip Innovators

1 Sep 2026 • 1 minute read

For nine consecutive years, Cadence has proudly supported the China Postgraduate IC Innovation Competition, one of China's premier integrated circuit design competitions for graduate students. Since 2017, we have remained committed to bringing academia and industry together and cultivating the next generation of semiconductor innovators.

This year, a record 1,885 teams participated in the competition, with 198 teams advancing to the national finals in Shenzhen, China. The Cadence enterprise challenge track engaged 82 teams, totaling 223 students from 30 leading universities, that leveraged Cadence OnCloud and advanced design technologies to address two cutting-edge semiconductor design challenges:

Hardware Accelerator Design for Lattice-Based Post-Quantum Cryptography
High-Performance Hardware Accelerator IP Design for FlashAttention in Large Language Model(LLM) Inference

Beyond technology enablement, Cadence provided digital, analog, and verification tools, along with on-site technical support, helping more than 550 finalists bring their ideas to life in a professional design environment.

At the accompanying EDA and AI for IC Innovation Forum, James Gu, China AE Group Director of Digital and Signoff Group, shared insights on Agentic AI-driven EDA Transformation, highlighting how intelligent agents are reshaping semiconductor design workflows and accelerating the journey toward autonomous intelligent design.

Congratulations to the nine winning teams from seven universities recognized in the Cadence Enterprise Challenge Track. A special shout-out to Peking University's team, which advanced to the Top 18 showcase and went on to win First Prize in the overall competition. Their achievements demonstrate the remarkable potential of tomorrow's chip innovators.

As AI and next-generation semiconductor technologies continue to evolve, Cadence remains committed to partnering with academia to inspire innovation, nurture talent, and strengthen the future semiconductor ecosystem.