Opening a Certified EDA lab at Sofia University in Bulgaria

A few months ago, I was contacted by Dobromir Gaydazhiev, director of Design Support team at GlobalFoundries who suggested to open an EDA lab at University of Sofia, to educate new generation of EDA engineers for the GF office in Bulgaria. The Cadence Academic Network is always in favor to support such industry-academia collaboration; therefore, we have quickly agreed on the actions and road plan. GF is sponsoring the design infrastructure and provides instructors, while Cadence is providing academic licenses and course materials.

The University of Sofia is the biggest university and Bulgaria and was founded 1888

To ensure the high quality of education, associate professor Stanimir Kolev has accomplished all requirements to become certified instructor and now the lab has also received a Cadence Academic Network certification, which is the first one on the Balkan peninsula.

Anton Klotz from Cadence Academic Network and certified Cadence instructor Prof. Stanimir Kolev

At the opening ceremony the Deputy Minister of Education Prof. Genka Petrova-Tashkova expressed her confidence in the success of the laboratory and emphasized that combining practical with academic training is something we all are striving for more and more. Creating a better connection between universities and employers is also a goal of the higher education strategy of the Ministry of Education and Science, in this laboratory it is seen as realized.

The Rector of the University of Sofia Prof. Anastas Gerdjikov noted that it is always a pleasure to attend the opening of something new and stressed that the topic is practically oriented and will be useful for the students who will be able to contribute to the country’s economy in the future.

 Bulgaria has a strong tradition in microelectronics, which unfortunately was not able to sustain after the Fall of the Iron Curtain. The most famous computer is Pravetz 82, which was a clone of Apple II with a small modification for support of cyrillic keyboard. There was even a military version of it with metal case and integrated monitor. At the biggest peak 40% of all computers produced in the socialist block came from Bulgaria. Also, the Sowjet space program of Buran would be not possible without electronics from Bulgaria, e.g. the autonomous landing module was designed and produced here. But with new generations of microelectronics engineers who will work at GF and other microelectronic companies, which are coming to Bulgaria the golden age of Bulgarian microelectronics might be repeated.

Anton Klotz from Cadence Academic Network and Dobromir Gaydazhiev from GF

By Cadence partnering with GF to provide an EDA lab to the students of University of Sofia, we’re enabling them to create great support of future GF technologies. It is a unique collaboration; two strong commercial companies and a university are partnering together for a common goal! This partnership proves that we can bridge the divide between industry and academic in a multitude of ways. Do you want to play a valuable role in shaping the next generation of engineers, help them gain experience working with the company’s technologies? Contact us, we can help and share the available experience of such partnerships!