Service

Service Awards

SIGDA has restructured its service awards, and will be giving two annual service awards.

  • Distinguished Service Award: The SIGDA Distinguished Service Award is given to individuals who have dedicated many years of their career in extraordinary services to promoting, leading, or creating ACM/SIGDA programs or events.
  • Meritorious Service Award: The SIGDA Meritorious Service Award is given to individuals who have performed professional services above and beyond traditional service to promoting, leading, or creating ACM/SIGDA programs or events.

At any given year, the number of Distinguished Service Award will be up to 2, and the number of Meritorious Service Award will be up to 4.

Nominations should consist of:

  • Award type being nominated.
  • Name, address, phone number and email of person making the nomination.
  • Name, affiliation, address, email, and telephone number of the nominee for whom the award is recommended.
  • A statement (between 200 and 500 words long) explaining why the nominee deserves the award. Note that the award is given for service that goes above and beyond traditional services.
  • Up to 2 additional letters of support. Include the name, affiliation, email address, and telephone number of the letter writer(s). Supporters of multiple candidates are strongly encouraged to compare the candidates in their letters.

Note that the nominator and reference shall come from active SIGDA volunteers. Deadline of the nomination every year: March 15 (Except 2019, May 5).

Please send all your nomination materials as one pdf file to SIGDA-Award@acm.org before the deadline.

Distinguished Service Awards

2023Tulika Mitra, National University of Singapore
For her leadership in major SIGDA conferences such asgeneral chair for ICCAD and ESWEEK“.
Patrick Groeneveld, Stanford University
For his multi-year significant contribution to the EDA community, such as DAC finance chair among many other“.
2022Vijay Narayanan, The Pennsylvania State University
For Extraordinary Dedication and Leadership to SIGDA“.
Harry Foster, Siemens EDA
For Extraordinary Dedication and Persistence in Leading DAC during Pandemic“.
2021Deming Chen, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
For distinguished contributions to the design automation and reconfigurable computing communities“.
Evangeline F. Y. Young, Chinese University of Hong Kong
For outstanding leadership in promoting diversity in the ACM/SIGDA community“.
2020Sri Parameswaran, University of New South Wales
“For leadership and distinguished service to the EDA community“.
2019Naehyuck Chang, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
For many years of impactful service to ACM/SIGDA in various leadership positions“.
Sudeep Pasricha, Colorado State University
For a decade of outstanding service to ACM/SIGDA in various volunteer positions
2018Chuck Alpert, Cadence Design Systems
For significant contributions to DAC”.
Jörg Henkel, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
For leading SIGDA efforts in Europe and DATE”.
Michael ‘Mac’ McNamara, Adapt-IP
For sustained contributions to the design automation community and DAC”.
Michelle Clancy, Cayenne Communication
For sustained contributions to the community, especially DAC”.
2016Steven Levitan
In recognition of a lifetime of devoted service to ACM SIGDA and the Electronic Design Automation community.
2015Tatsuo Ohtsuki, Waseda University
Hiroto Yasuura, Kyushu University
Hidetoshi Onodera, Kyoto University
For their distinguished contributions to the Asia and South Pacific Design automation Conference (ASPDAC) as well as their many years of dedicated service on the conference’s steering committee
Massoud Pedram, University of Southern California
For his many years of service as Editor in Chief of the ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES)
2014Peter Marwedel, Technical University of Dortmund
For his muiltiple years of service starting and maintaining the DATE PhD Forum
2012Joe Zamreno, Iowa State University
Baris Taskin, Drexel University
2011Peter Feldman, IBM
Radu Marculescu, CMU
Qinru Qiu, Syracuse University
Martin Wong, UIUC
Qing Wu, Air Force Rome Labs
2010Alex K. Jones
For dedicated service to ACM/SIGDA and the Design Automation Conference as director of the University Booth
Matt Guthaus
For dedicated service as director of SIGDA CADathlon at ICCAD program and Editor-in-Chief of the SIGDA E-Newsletter
Diana Marculescu
For dedicated service as SIGDA Chair, and contributions to SIGDA, DAC and the EDA Profession
2009Nikil Dutt
For contributions to ACM’s Special Interest Group on Design Automation during the past fifteen years as a SIGDA officer, coordinator of the University Booth in its early years, and most recently, as Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems
2008SungKyu Lim
For his contributions to the DAC University Booth.”
2007Richard Goering
For his contributions as EE Times Editorial Director for Design Automation for more than two decades
Gary Smith
For his contributions as Chief EDA Analyst at Gartner Dataquest for almost two decades.”
Daniel Gajski
Mary Jane Irwin
Donald E. Thomas
Chuck Shaw

For outstanding contributions to the creation of the SIGDA/DAC University Booth, on the occasion of its 20th edition.”
Soha Hassoun
Steven P. Levitan

For outstanding contributions to the creation of the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC on the occasion of its 10th edition.”
Richard Auletta
For over a decade of service to SIGDA as University Booth Coordinator, Secretary/Treasurer, and Executive Committee Member-at-Large.
2006Robert Walker
For dedicated service as SIGDA Chair (2001 – 2005), and over a decade of service to SIGDA, DAC and the EDA profession.”
2005Mary Jane Irwin
For dedicated service as Editor in Chief of ACM Journal, TODAES (1998 – 2004), and many years of service to SIGDA, DAC, and the EDA profession.”
2004James P. Cohoon
For exemplary service to SIGDA, to ACM, to DAC, and to the EDA profession as a whole
2003James Plusquellic
For exemplary service to ACM/SIGDA and the Design Automation Conference as director of the University Booth program
2002Steven P. Levitan
For over a decade of service to ACM/SIGDA and the EDA industry — as DAC University Booth Coordinator, Student Design Contest organizer, founder and promoter of SIGDA’s web server, and most recently, Chair of ACM/SIGDA from 1997 to 2001.
Cheng-Kok Koh
For exemplary service to ACM/SIGDA and the EDA industry — as Co-director of SIGDA’s CDROM Project, as SIGDA’s Travel Grants Coordinator, and as Editor of the SIGDA Newsletter.”
2001Robert Grafton
For contributions to the EDA profession through his many years as the Program Director of NSF’s Design, Tools, and Test Program of the computer, Information Sciences & Engineering Directorate. In this position, he provided supervision, mentorship, and guidance to several generation of EDA tool designers and builders funded by grants from the National Science Foundation.”
2000Massoud Pedram
For his contributions in developing the SIGDA Multimedia Series and organizing the Young Student Support Program
Soha Hassoun
For developing the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum
1999C.L. (Dave) Liu
For his work in founding our flagship journal ACM/TODAES

Meritorious Service Awards

2023Robert Wille, Technical University of Munich
For his leading positions in major ACM SIGDA conferences, including Executive Committee of DATE, ICCAD and Chair of the PhD Forum at DAC and DATE“.
Lei Jiang, Indiana University Bloomington
For his leadership and contribution to SIGDA student research forums (SRFs) at ASP-DAC“.
Hui-Ru Jiang, National Taiwan University
For her continuous contribution to SIGDA PhD Forum at DAC and many other events“.
Jeyavijayan (JV) Rajendran, Texas A&M University
For his leadership in co-founding and organizing Hack@DAC, the largest hardware security competition in the world“.
2022Jeff Goeders, Brigham Young University
For Chairing System Design Contest @ DAC for the Past 3 Years“.
Cheng Zhuo, Zhejiang University
For the Leading Efforts to the Success of SRC@ICCAD and SDC@DAC as Chairs for the past5 years, and the Sustained Contributions to the EDA Community in China“.
Tsung-Wei Huang, University of Utah
For Chairing CADathlon and CAD Contests at ICCAD for Three Years. These Activities Have Engaged Hundreds of Students into CAD Research“.
Yiyu Shi, University of Notre Dame
For Outstanding Services in Leading SIGDA Educational Efforts“.
2021Bei Yu, Chinese University of Hong Kong
For service as SIGDA Web Chair from 2016 to 2021, SIGDA Student Research Competition Chair in 2018 and 2019, and other SIGDA activities“.
2020Aida Todri-Sanial, LIRMM/University of Montpellier
“For service as Co-Editor-in-Chief of SIGDA e-Newsletter from 2016 to 2019 and other SIGDA activities“.
Yu Wang, Tsinghua University
For service as Co-Editor-in-Chief of SIGDA e-Newsletter from 2017 to 2019 and other SIGDA activities”.
2019Yinhe Han, Chinese Academy of Sciences
For outstanding effort in promoting EDA and SIGDA events in China
Jingtong Hu, University of Pittsburgh
For contribution to multiple SIGDA education and outreach activities
Xiaowei Xu, University of Notre Dame
For contribution to the 2018 System Design Contest at ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference
2015Laleh Behjat, University of Calgary
For service as chair of the SIGDA PhD forum at DAC
Soonhoi Ha, Seoul National University
Jeonghee Shin, Apple
For their service as co-chairs of the University Booth at DAC
1998Jason Cong
Bryan Preas
Kathy Preas
Chong-Chian Koh
Cheng-Kok Koh

For contributions in producing SIGDA CD ROM’s – Archiving the knowledge of the Design Automation Community
1997Robert Walker
For his hard work as Secretary/Treasurer and University Booth Coordinator
1996Debbie Hall
For serving as ACM Program Director for SIGDA for the past 6 years

Following are some awards no longer being given:

Technical Leadership Awards

2013Jarrod Roy
Sudeep Pasricha
Sudarshan Banerjee
Srinivas Katkoori

for running CADathlon
2012Cheng Zhuo
Steve Burns
Amin Chirayu
Andrey Ayupov
Gustavo Wilke
Mustafa Ozdal
2011Raju Balasuramanian
Zhuo Li
Frank Liu
Natarajan Viswanathan
2010Cliff Sze
For contributions to the ISPD Physical Design contest, and promoting research in physical design.”
2008Hai Zhou
For contributions to the SIGDA E-Newsletter (2005-2008)
Jing Yang
For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC (2004-2008)
2007Geert Janssen
For contributions to the SIGDA CADathlon
Tony Givargis
For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC (2005-2007)
Gi-Joon Nam
For contributions to the Physical Design Contest at ISPD (2005-2007)
2006Kartik Mohanram
For contributions to the SIGDA CADathlon at ICCAD (2004-2005)
Ray Hoare
For contributions to the SIGDA University Booth at DAC (2004-2006)
Radu Marculescu
For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC (2004-2006)
Frank Liu
For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC (2005-2006)
2005Florian Krohm
For contributions to the SIGDA CADathlon at ICCAD
R. Iris Bahar
Igor Markov

For contributions to the SIGDA E-Newsletter
2004Robert Jones
For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC
2003Diana Marculescu
For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC
2002Geert Janssen
For contributions to the SIGDA CADathlon at ICCAD
Pai Chou
Abe Elfadel
Olivier Coudert
Soha Hassoun

For contributions to the SIGDA Ph.D. Forum at DAC

1996 SIGDA Lifetime Achievement Award

Paul Weil
“For contributions to SIGDA for 13 years, most recently being in charge of Workshops.”

1996 SIGDA Leadership Award

Steve Levitan
“For Newsletter and Electronic Publishing”

1995 SIGDA Outstanding Leadership Award

Charlotte Acken
“In recognition of her efforts in managing the high school scholarship program”

1994 SIGDA Outstanding Leadership Award

Pat Hefferan
“As Editor of the SIGDA Newsletter”