Synopsys and Russia’s National Research University of Electronic Technology Help Prepare Students for Chip Design

Synopsys-MIET Program has graduated 109 students in seven years

MOSCOW, Russia, June 10, 2013 – Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a global leader providing software, IP and services used to accelerate innovation in chips and electronic systems, and the National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET), today announced that 17 master's students have completed their studies in the Synopsys-MIET joint educational program this year and can now take the next step toward building their professional engineering careers. The students are graduating from a two-year master's program that MIET established in 2006 with assistance from Synopsys in order to provide an advanced education in microelectronics to students in Russia. The program offers a customized curriculum for IC design that is based on Synopsys' EDA tools and which was developed by the Synopsys Armenia Educational Department (SAED) as part of the Synopsys Worldwide University Program. Students in the program benefit from the program's proven educational model of cooperation between industry and academia and enter the workforce in Russia having been given access to current industry knowledge and skills that can help them become productive engineering professionals.

During a commencement ceremony held on Monday, MIET Rector Yuri A. Chaplygin, associate member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Engineering Science and professor, conferred MIET diplomas on the graduates. Rich Goldman, vice president of Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Synopsys, gave Synopsys Certificates of Achievement to the graduates.

This is the sixth year the joint Synopsys-MIET program has graduated students. Since its inception 109 students have successfully completed the program. Many have gone on to join leading semiconductor organizations in the region, including Mikron, Angstrem, the Institute for Design Problems in Microelectronics of the Russian Academy of Science, and NI ELVIS.

"Synopsys professionals and MIET professors work together to teach students about advanced tools and techniques at the Synopsys-MIET Educational Center. We only admit 20 new students each year and have high hopes for them. Last week the most senior students in the joint Synopsys-MIET program successfully defended master theses focusing on topics such as digital and analog IC design in order to graduate," said Rector Chaplygin.

"Each student at the Synopsys-MIET Educational Center has access to a comprehensive, industry-leading EDA university tools package from Synopsys," said Goldman. "In addition, Synopsys provides educational resources such as customized curricula, Educational Design Kits (EDKs) and interoperable Process Design Kits (iPDKs) for 90-nanometer and 32/28-nanometer technologies to help show students what it's like to work in a state-of-the-art IC design environment."

"Synopsys' educational collaboration with MIET has continued to evolve and deepen. This year, three graduates of the bachelor program at SAED successfully completed the two-year joint program at MIET and earned a master's degree in Engineering," said Prof. Vazgen Melikyan, director of SAED, honorable scientist of the Republic of Armenia. "To keep the MIET's educational program efficient and up-to-date, we continuously work on adjusting its content, so that it fully corresponds to the educational program we have at SAED."

"We have many years of experience working with the Chair of IC Design at the National Research University, MIET," said Alexander L. Stempkovskiy, director of the Federal State Budget Institution of the Science at the Institute of Problems of Design in Microelectronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPDM RAS). "Master's students who study at the Synopsys-MIET Educational Center have impressive qualifications. They demonstrate a deep knowledge of the IC design flow and skill using Synopsys EDA tools as well as Matlab, Tcl and C/C++ to implement missing links in existing flows. They have participated in joint scientific research and technical projects with globally recognized foreign companies, and demonstrated their ability to independently carry out complex research."

"The Synopsys-MIET program has prepared me well for a career in microelectronics," said Irina Ryzhova, a 2013 graduate of the Synopsys-MIET joint master's program. "I learned a lot about the latest concepts in IC design, process development and teamwork, as well as how to use industry-leading EDA tools. I gained real-world work experience at the Institute for Design Problems in Microelectronics of Russian Academy of Sciences. I believe programs such as this contribute to the growth and success of the microelectronics industry in Russia.