MICAS (KU Leuven)

We are happy to announce that MICAS staff members Marian Verhelst and Wim Dehaene are participating in the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) programme on Scaling Compute. Following an open solicitation process, they were selected as recipients of ARIA's funding. In the frame of this programme, they will perform groundbreaking research targeting a new class of mixed-signal #processors that are specifically conceived to solve combinatorial optimization problems (#COP). Focusing on #ISING processors, they will work on #circuits, #architectures and #algorithms, thinking across the full stack. They are aiming for maximal #energy and #area efficiency, while maintaining high #flexibility to be compatible with a large number of real life applications. Looking forward to some impactful research!

Last Friday we celebrated the retirement of MICAS (KU Leuven) professor Michiel Steyaert. In a very entertaining academic session, KU Leuven rector Luc Sels, KU Leuven Faculty of Engineering Science dean Jos Vander Sloten, former Department of Electrical Engineering chair, former vice-rector and MICAS staff member Georges Gielen, Delft University of Technology professor Klaas Bult, and MICAS staff member Patrick Reynaert each highlighted from their own personal perspective the impact that Michiel has realized throughout his academic career, in his role as dean, as department chair, but also outside the university. At the event, it was announced that Michiel has been awarded the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Solid-State Circuits Award, a firm recognition for his pioneering contributions to RF CMOS circuits and integrated power converters. In his closing speech, Michiel especially brought a message of thankfulness for all the enjoyable interactions, fruitful collaborations, and the many opportunities that have crossed his path. Michiel, this feeling is mutual. Thank you for your enormous influence on the MICAS research and its societal impact! We will reap the benefits of this for a long time to come. And to continue a good MICAS tradition, the evening ended with a reception and walking diner, the ideal opportunity to recall many pleasant memories from Michiel's career. PS: special shout-out to Piet Callemeyn for adding that touch of magic to the evening!

📣 We’ve just hit 3,000 followers on our MICAS (KU Leuven) page, more than double compared to one year ago! While this wasn’t something we were actively aiming for, it’s a sign that what we’re doing resonates with people. Thanks for following along, and we’ll keep sharing the work that matters to us and, hopefully, to you too! A special kudo to Stan Maes, our follower no. 3,000! 😉

👨🎓 MICAS PhD graduates 2024, part 9: Jhon Gomez. 🔬 During his PhD, Jhon has tackled two primary challenges in testing analog and mixed-signal ICs in the automotive industry: 1️⃣ improving the testing quality by detecting latent defects and 2️⃣ reducing the test development time. The result is a significant advancement in the quality and reliability of automotive ICs, and a reduction in the test development time. 🎉 Congratulations with your graduation, Jhon! 👉 More info about our research on models and methods for analog/mixed-signal test analysis and test generation can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eYqTafnc 👨🏫 PhD supervisor: Georges Gielen. 🏭 Jhon is now Sr. Analog Design Engineer at MELEXIS.

🎉 In THE World University Rankings KU Leuven scores a perfect 💯 in the "Industry" pillar, reflecting its strong performance in technology transfer, innovation, and economic impact. This comes as no surprise to us at MICAS (KU Leuven) 😊. Around 1/3 of our research activities are carried out within the context of a collaboration with industry, in which we not only aim to advance the scientific state of the art, but also to solve an application driven challenge with a large socio-economic impact. ➡ More about our research activities: https://lnkd.in/euksi2B3

MICAS (KU Leuven) is very happy to be part of this community. Together we will nurture and grow the Flemish semiconductor ecosystem, with groundbreaking research as its firm foundation.

A little throwback to #ESSERC2024, and taking the opportunity to say "Thank you!" to the many people who helped making this conference a great success! ✔ excellent scientific contributions, highly interesting plenary sessions, with lots of interaction from the audience ✔ plenty of networking opportunities, with the reception at the Brouwerij De Halve Maan and the diner at #Lauretum as clear highlights ✔ vibrant atmosphere, many informal contacts, making it very clear that physical meetings remain irreplaceable! 👏 Thanks to the organizers of the event, to Sistema Congressi e Comunicazione, to all the crew members, to Bruges Meeting & Convention Centre and the catering team, to the sponsors, and especially to all the participants. Hope to see you all next year in Munich for the 51st edition of ESSERC!

👨🎓 MICAS PhD graduates 2024, part 8: Ali Safa. 🔬 During his PhD, Ali has tackled two constraints of classical neural networks: the fact that they are super energy inefficient, and the fact that they require massive amounts of training data. Spiking neural networks (SNN), which are neuromorphic models of computation inspired by the inner-working of biological neural systems, is the alternative that Ali has developed. 🎉 Congratulations with your graduation, Ali! 👉 More info about our research on hardware-efficient AI and ML can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eKhASW5N 👨🏫 PhD supervisor: Georges Gielen. PhD co-supervisor: Francky Catthoor.

A big thank you to everyone who visited imec during KU Leuven’s GaN technology and design microcredential course! We're proud to showcase our cutting-edge facilities and support the next-generation of GaN innovators!   Special thanks to Patrick Reynaert for organizing this course and to the imec presenters Nadine Collaert, Stefaan Decoutere, Maritza Tangarife-Ortiz, Matteo Borga, Urmimala Chatterjee, PhD, Rana ElKashlan and Mojtaba Alaei for their incredible insights on GaN RF and power electronics technology. #TechEducation #Innovation #GaN #TalentDevelopment

🎉 #ESSERC2024 was edition number 5️⃣0️⃣! To celebrate this, Prof. Michiel Steyaert, looked back at the past 50 years during this morning's plenary session. And after that, a big cake 🎂 and specially decorated desserts 🥞 were served to all the attendees. Happy anniversary, ESSERC!