Cadence President and CEO Recognized for Making a Significant Impact on the EDA Industry Through Pioneering Technical Contributions and Business Leadership
MILPITAS, Calif., Dec. 16, 2021–Dr. Anirudh Devgan, President and CEO of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. has been selected to receive the 2021 Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design.
The Phil Kaufman Award is presented annually by the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance), a SEMI Technology Community, and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). The award ceremony and dinner will be held Thursday, March 10, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm at The GlassHouse in San Jose, California. Registration details will be available soon.
Dr. Devgan is being honored for his extensive contributions to electronic design automation (EDA). He is widely recognized as a leading authority in parallel and distributed computing and has made a broad impact in fields ranging from circuit simulation to statistical design and optimization, physical design and signoff, verification and hardware platforms, and system design and analysis. Dr. Devgan’s groundbreaking contributions include not just the development of algorithms, but also successfully bringing to market commercial solutions that have gained widespread customer adoption throughout the industry.
“Anirudh has a truly rare combination of widely recognized research excellence, exceptional business impact and results, and outstanding leadership in the EDA industry,” said Lip-Bu Tan, former CEO and now Executive Chairman of Cadence, who nominated Dr. Devgan for this honor. “Anirudh’s overall contributions during his career spanning Carnegie Mellon, IBM, Magma and Cadence have significantly advanced the industry.”
“I have known Anirudh for over 20 years from his early days at IBM and have since closely followed his spectacular career in the industry,” said Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, The Edgar L. and Harold H. Buttner Chair of EECS, University of California, Berkeley, a Cadence founder and a Kaufmann Award winner. “I know of hardly anyone in EDA who has that winning combination of bold vision and deep technical know-how, along with outstanding leadership and organizational skills. Leveraging these unique abilities, Anirudh has been able to constantly innovate in a mature field like EDA and bring to market a sequence of game-changing products that have delivered transformational business results.”
“On behalf of the ESD Alliance, I would like to congratulate Anirudh on receiving the 2021 Phil Kaufman award,” said Simon Segars, ESD Alliance Chairman and CEO of Arm Holdings. “His contributions in technical innovation have been foundational to bringing the EDA industry into the modern parallel and cloud computing era. Anirudh’s impact on the industry is well-recognized and celebrated with this distinguished honor.”
About Dr. Anirudh Devgan, the 2021 Phil Kaufman Award Recipient
Dr. Devgan joined Cadence in 2012, has served as President of Cadence since 2017 and has been a member of the Cadence Board of Directors since August 2021. He assumed the additional role of Cadence CEO on December 15, 2021.
Dr. Devgan began his career at the IBM Research (Thomas J. Watson Research Center) in 1994. His work at IBM on EDA algorithms and design optimization techniques contributed to IBM’s leadership in the 1990s and 2000s in high-performance microprocessor and server designs. He joined Magma Design Automation in 2005 as a key member of its Executive Management Team and General Manager of the Custom Design Business Unit. He initiated and brought to market multiple new products in the areas of circuit simulation, analog mixed-signal design, physical verification, library characterization and 3D extraction among others. The products were successful in both customer adoption and business results.
At Cadence, Dr. Devgan has spearheaded technology excellence and driven the re-architecture and revamping of its product lines, notably the entire suite of digital and signoff tools, as well as its functional and mixed-signal simulation solutions. Dr. Devgan established Cadence’s Intelligent System Design strategy and is driving breakthrough advancements in cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and system innovation. Dr Devgan’s leadership and contributions have had a transformational impact, with a significant increase in Cadence’s revenue, profitability and market capitalization as well as in the overall customer and market adoption of its solutions.
Dr. Devgan has received best paper awards from both leading conferences in the field – Design Automation Conference (DAC) and International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD). Dr. Devgan is an IEEE Fellow, holds 27 U.S. patents and has published numerous research papers in leading journals and conferences. Dr. Devgan received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
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. The 2019 recipient was Dr. Mary Jane Irwin, Evan Pugh Professor and A. Robert Noll Chair Emeritus in Engineering in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no Phil Kaufman Award in 2020.
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.
