MILPITAS, Calif., Aug. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Thomas W. Williams, former senior technical staff member at IBM and Synopsys’ chief scientist and Synopsys fellow, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design.
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The award is presented annually by the
Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) and the
IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). The award ceremony and dinner will be held Wednesday, November 7, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at The GlassHouse in San Jose, Calif. Registration information is available at
http://bit.ly/2MwQdCN.
Dr. Williams is known for the seminal paper co-authored with Dr. Ed Eichelberger describing Level Sensitive Scan Design (LSSD) presented at the 1977 Design Automation Conference. Since then, the concept has been adopted by major digital electronics manufacturers and EDA electronic design automation (EDA) companies. He continued to enhance these and other Design-for-Testability techniques, laying the foundation for testing modern integrated circuits and systems.
“His contributions and tireless evangelizing throughout the industry have had immense impact, as all significant digital chips today use derivatives of his work,” says Dr. Aart de Geus, co-CEO of Synopsys. “Tom is a gentleman and role model in our industry who has been immensely giving and a mentor to a whole generation of test professionals.”
David Atienza, president of IEEE-CEDA observes: “Tom has been very active in organizing the test community to address the right challenges in safety and security of semiconductor systems. He was the founding member of the IEEE Test Technology Committee and started its first workshop, the Design for Test Workshop, among many other contributions. Without him indeed the test community would have never become as effective.”
“Dr. Williams has been a tireless advocate of design for testability throughout the design ecosystem, including contributions at IBM and Synopsys,” notes Bob Smith, executive director of the ESD Alliance. “Manufacturing of today’s complex electronic systems would not be possible without these techniques.”
Dr. M. Ray Mercer, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University, adds, “There is no other individual whose leadership has advanced the industrial practice of scan Design for Test more than Tom Williams. Because of his leadership, in addition to advancing electronic testing, these capabilities enable critical technologies such as static timing analysis, formal verification, and more.”
“No person has contributed more toward progress in Design for Testability than Tom Williams,” concludes Dr. Edward Eichelberger, co-author of the LSSD paper and retired IBM fellow. “For this achievement, I believe he is an excellent choice to be honored with the 2018 Phil Kaufman Award.”
About Dr. Thomas W. Williams, the 2018 Phil Kaufman Award Recipient
Dr. Thomas W. Williams, who retired from Synopsys as a Synopsys Fellow, resides in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Formerly, he was with the IBM Microelectronics Division and managed the VLSI Design for Testability group. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., and a Master of Arts degree in pure mathematics from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Williams was awarded a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University at Fort Collins.
Recipient of numerous best paper awards from the IEEE and ACM, he is founder or co-founder of numerous workshops and conferences dealing with testing and was twice a Distinguished Visitor lecturer for the IEEE Computer Society. Dr. Williams previously served on the Computer Society Board of Governors and the IEEE Board of Directors and was the Society’s 2000 treasurer. He is a member of the Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, IEEE, ACM, Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and in 1985 and 1997, he was a guest professor and Robert Bosch fellow at the
Universität of Hannover in Hannover, Germany. He recently was honored as a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Science.
Dr. Williams was named an IEEE fellow in 1988 and received the Computer Society’s W. Wallace McDowell Award for outstanding contributions to the computer art in 1989. In 2007, Dr. Williams accepted the European Design and Automation Association Lifetime Achievement Award for “outstanding contributions to the state of the art in electronic design, automation, and testing of electronic systems.” In 2010, he was given the Distinguished Alumni Award from Colorado State University’s College of Engineering.
In retirement, Williams travels with his wife and devotes himself to photography with his Dutch son and family in The Netherlands, and fly-fishing with his wife, son and two granddaughters.
About the Phil Kaufman Award
The Phil Kaufman Award honors individuals who have had a demonstrable impact on the field of electronic system design through technology innovations, education/mentoring, or business or industry leadership. The award was established as a tribute to Phil Kaufman, the late industry pioneer who turned innovative technologies into commercial businesses that have benefited electronic designers. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for Research at the University of Pittsburgh, recognized for his pioneering contributions to algorithms and tools for analog and mixed-signal designs.
About the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA)
The
IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) provides a focal point for EDA activities spread across seven IEEE societies (Antennas and Propagation, Circuits and Systems, Computer, Electron Devices, Electronics Packaging, Microwave Theory and Techniques, and Solid-State Circuits). The Council sponsors or co-sponsors over a dozen key EDA conferences including: the Design Automation Conference (DAC), Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), and events at Embedded Systems Week (ESWeek). The Council also publishes IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits & Systems (TCAD), IEEE Design & Test (D&T), and IEEE Embedded Systems Letters (ESL). The Council boasts a prestigious awards program in order to promote the recognition of leading EDA professionals, which includes the A. Richard Newton, Phil Kaufman, and Ernest S. Kuh Early Career Awards. The Council welcomes new volunteers and local chapters.
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