Taipei, Taiwan Named Top Chapter for 2002 September 2002

The Taipei, Taiwan Chapter will be recognized as the Outstanding SSCS Chapter for 2002 at the ISSCC, 10 February in San Francisco. The Chapter was commended not only for the number of educational programs offered over a year but also for attracting high attendance at tutorials. Its membership has also been growing at about 80 members a year. The Taipei Chapter cooperates with other national government and industry organizations on some of its technical conferences, taking the lead role in sponsoring one and playing a strong support role in two others. J.T. Wu, the Chapter Chair, said of the announcement, "We are honored to be named the SSCS Outstanding Chapter. The success of the Taipei Chapter is due to the efforts of many individuals, especially my predecessor, Prof. Chorng-Kuang Wang. He laid the foundation of the Chapter. And we are still following his planning. In recent years, the IC design industry in Taiwan has experienced an explosive growth. As a result, the Chapter's membership is growing at a healthy rate, and its activities can attracted many interests." In the last year the Chapter has organized nine Short Courses, scheduling them at the National Chiao-Tung University, Hsin-Chu, or along side symposiums and conferences of regional importance. Attendance at these courses is substantial, typically around 250 registrants. Their speakers are drawn from industry and academia. The Chapter also has been commended for the number of conferences it has sponsored or cosponsored in the last year. The Taiwan Chapter hosted the 3rd IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on ASICs (AP-ASIC 2002), 6-8 August at the Grand Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan. The conference is organized by IEEE's Pacific rim Chapters with the conference site circulated every even year within those countries. The objective of AP-ASIC is to promote research and development activities of solid-state circuits. In addition to Short Courses given by experts in specific areas, AP-ASIC will include regular and special sessions, covering aspects of integrated circuits and systems with emerging design technologies, advanced theories, and applications of ASICs. Taiwan was the second to host this conference after the founding Chapter from Seoul, Korea, hosted AP-ASIC in 1999 and 2000. The Taiwan Chapter has served as a cosponsor for two other conferences. The VLSI Design/CAD Symposium, co-sponsored with the National Science Council, the Ministry of Education Advisor Office, is the largest annual domestic VLSI/CAD symposium in Taiwan with 300 to 350 attendees. The 2003 International Symposium on VLSI Technology, Systems, and Applications (2003 VLSI-TSA), will take place in Hsinchu, Taiwan on April 23 - 25, 2003. The purpose of the Symposium is to bring together scientists and engineers actively engaged in research and development on VLSI technology, systems, and applications to discuss current progress in this field. Double the attendance of the TLSI/CAD Symposium, the VLSI-TSA is held alternate years. The Chapter was also a cosponsor for the 2001 event which featured a joint keynote presentation and technical sessions in two parallel tracks; one on Technology and the other on Circuits and Applications. With the 14 invited papers setting the stage for technical interactions, the main contents of VLSI-TSA were the 66 contributed papers, selected from about 120 excellent submissions from all over the world, representing original works on the latest advances in the area of VLSI technology, circuits, and applications. The Chapter relies on electronic communication for regular communication with its members, using both email and their website instead of a postal newsletter. Chapter speakers have been drawn entirely from experts selected by the Taipei Chapter or conference organizers. When asked what key practice in the management of the Taiwan Chapter would he recommend other chapters try, Wu responded, "Try to build the line of succession in advance, so that the experience can be maintained, and long-term plan can get executed." And how do you find effective people to help manage Chapter activities? Wu continued "The Taipei Chapter is run mostly by the people from the academics. Usually the senior professors will take the leadership roles with helps from the junior professors. This award marks the third year in a row that a western Pacific Chapter has earned the SSCS recognition as outstanding. The SSCS Chapters Evaluating Committee commented how difficult it is to compare the merits of large Chapters surrounded by a lot of industrial microelectronics with those of small Chapters in places where the microelectronics industry is just emerging. The candidates this year provided impressive records of activities that made the evaluation difficult. But all agreed that the Taiwan Chapter is clearly outstanding. When and where Short Course Presenter 10-11 May 2001 National Chiao-Tung University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan Design and Simulation of RF & Analog Ics Professor Georges G.E. Gielen 14 August 2001 At the VLSI Design/CAD Symposium, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan VLSI DSP for Broadband Communications Meng-Lin Yu, Agere RF IC Design for Wireless Communications Jen-Shan Lin, Agere 17 April 2001 National Chiao-Tung University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan Network-Processing ICs C. Bernard Shung, Broadcom Corp. 6 August 2002 At the 3rd IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on ASICs, Grand Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan Introducing New Concepts in RFIC Design Chin-Chun Meng, National Chiao-Tung University Network Processing ICs- Design Considerations and Challenges C. Bernard Shung, Broadcom Corp 12-13 August 2002 At the VLSI Design/CAD Symposium, Naluwan Hotel, Taitung, Taiwan Wireless SOC Design Methodology Kuei-Ann Wen, National Chiao-Tung University On Issues of Design Automation in SOC Designs Yuo-Jinn Hsu, Novas Software Design of High-Performance Microprocessor Circuits Shi-Lian Lu, Intel Corp