14–17 June 2027·Seville, Spain

2027

EDA Competition

A better tool, method or flow

For M.Sc. and Ph.D. students

Compete for the $1,000 award and join the SMACD Hall of Fame

As usual in SMACD conferences, the 2027 edition in Seville (14–17 June) holds a thrilling and dynamic event where M.Sc. and Ph.D. students compete with their best ideas, methodologies, flows and tools, with one unique yet challenging goal.

“To improve electronic design automation for integrated circuits and systems”
Download the call (PDF)Meet past winnersPaper deadline: 19 February 2027

How to enter

  1. 1

    Submit a paper, following the same SMACD 2027 submission guidelines, describing your methodology and/or tool, the design problem of your choice and the solution your methodology and/or tool provides. On EasyChair, choose “EDA Competition” as the Submission Type.

  2. 2

    The first author of the paper, who also presents it at the conference, must be an M.Sc. or Ph.D. student.

Use the regular paper guidelines and the same deadline as every SMACD 2027 paper.

Topics

Innovative design methodologies, flows and tools that improve how integrated circuits and systems are designed. Submissions may address any topic within the technical scope of SMACD 2027: from modeling, simulation and synthesis to AI-assisted design methodologies, EDA for hardware security and emerging technologies.

The scope of SMACD 2027

What happens next

  • Present in a special session

    All accepted submissions are presented by the students in special sessions at the conference and published in the conference proceedings.

  • Show it live

    Presenters perform a live demo of their methodology and/or tool.

  • Connected

    The organization guarantees an internet connection to all participants; licences for any CAD tools or design kits needed are each participant’s responsibility.

  • Nothing to lose

    Papers not shortlisted for the competition are still considered by the technical program committee for the SMACD 2027 regular sessions.

How the jury decides

A Judging Committee selects the winner(s) on the quality of the paper, its presentation at the conference and the live demonstration, using these criteria:

  1. 01

    Novelty

    Advancement beyond the state of the art: originality of the methodology or tool and its contribution beyond existing solutions.

  2. 02

    Complexity

    Of the problem posed in the paper.

  3. 03

    Level of automation

    Fully automated, user-assisted…

  4. 04

    Designer interface

    Problem setup, result analysis…

  5. 05

    Applicability

    A general approach, or one restricted to special problems, circuit classes or sizes.

  6. 06

    Robustness

    Of the design solutions (against parasitics, variability…) and of the proposal itself (convergence, insensitivity to input or starting values…).

Join the Hall of Fame

Every winning tool joins the SMACD Hall of Fame, alongside the student tools awarded since the competition began in 2012. Yours could be next.

editions
12
editions
awarded tools
30
awarded tools
countries
10
countries

The latest winners

All 30 EDA Competition winners since 2012

Which SMACD competition is yours?

This one

EDA Competition

Looking for a better designer: a new tool, method or flow that improves how circuits are designed.

Or this one

Open-Source Design Challenge

Looking for a better design: a real circuit made entirely with open-source tools and an open PDK, published so that anyone can reproduce it.

Important dates

  1. Paper submission deadline

  2. Author notification

  3. Camera-ready submission

  4. Early registration deadline

Questions? Ask the chairs

  • Elisenda Roca

    IMSE-CNM · Spain

  • Santiago Sondón

    Carinthia University of Applied Sciences · Austria

Write to info@smacd-conference.org with “EDA Competition” in the subject.