Cadence Design Systems, Inc. signed an MOU with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to develop China's first national IC design training program.
The MOU sets the framework for the China National IC Design Talent Incubation Project. The program will initially focus on nine of China's top universities. Cadence will provide wide-ranging support for the initiative, from IC design and EDA courses to jointly developed design projects.
The following universities have been selected by the MOE to participate in the program: Peking University and Tsinghua University, Beijing; Fudan University, Jiaotong University and Southeast University, Jiangsu; Zhejiang University and Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Hubei; Xidian University, Shanxi; and Chengdu Electronic Science & Technology University, Sichuan. Cadence will work directly with each university to determine the details of the program. The government's target is to train 300 students per year, per university at the master's and doctorate levels.
In addition to providing input to the development of the universities' curricula, Cadence will provide advanced IC design and EDA courses plus practical laboratory sessions to cover the complete IC design cycle, from the initial concept to the realization of complete, automated electronic design solutions. Specific courses will be offered in functional verification, digital IC design, customer IC design, design for manufacturing and silicon-package-board co-design. Teaching tools and aids, including course books, laboratory reference materials and related statistics, will be included. Cadence will also provide Train the Trainer sessions, both in China and overseas, to enable university professors to develop and teach advanced curricula and to take up overseas internship opportunities.