The aim of the contest is to promote excellence in the design of electronics systems and embedded software system designs in educational, research and industry establishments by providing a venue for professionals in the field of "VLSI and Embedded Systems " to showcase their designs. The design contest is open to all professionals, university and college students studying B.Tech./B.E. /M.Tech./M.E./M.S./Ph.D. in the areas of VLSI, Microelectronics, Computer Science, Embedded Systems are strongly encouraged to submit their student projects. The purpose of this contest is not only to create platform to showcase and share your work with academic/industry experts, seek suggestions but also enhance networking opportunities.

For VLSI 2013, we solicit entries for the design contest from full-time graduate and undergraduate students, and professionals from industry and research establishments. The design and implementation should have taken place within 24 months prior to the submission deadline as part of the course, research or development work. It is expected that participants will take necessary clearance from their institutes or organizations. They will need to give a declaration in this regard in specified format.

Designs can be for analog, digital OR programmable circuits. Submitted designs can be embodied as digital or analog integrated circuits, programmable processors, SoCs, platform-based or embedded systems designs.Design/project fields include (but not limited to):

• Digital Integrated Circuits
• Analog Integrated Circuits
• FPGA based designs
• Computer Architectures/ Processors
• Reconfigurable Computing Systems
• SoC / Platform-based designs
• Embedded Systems
• MEMS/Optics/Bio-Chips
• Innovative Design Methodologies and Verification Techniques

Entries can be in the categories of integrated circuits and electronic systems (board-level designs) . We value the novelty of idea and design. We are open to accept Electronic System Designs but designs conforming to the theme of conference ”Green Technology” will have added advantage. For evaluating the hardware design entries proof of implementation must be provided in the form of die and board photographs along with measurement data and live demos (if possible).

It is not possible to realize the potential of any electronic system without an elegant software design. So we are adding new chapter to VLSI and Embedded Systems Conference “The Embedded Software Systems Designs”. The idea behind this addition is to bring out the ideas and designs on how the advances in VLSI designs are being exploited by Software systems.

In first avatar we are open to accept embedded software designs ideas/papers/innovations in embedded systems. We value the novelty of the idea and there are no restrictions. But if it is supports “Green Planet ” theme then it may get added advantage. However we are listing down some of the verticals:

• Embedded system design for Green Habitats and Smart Home
• Virtualization and Cloud Technologies
• Embedded systems for Future Data Centers
• System designs for Telemetics
• Embedded Software Designs for Mobile Platforms
• Embedded system Design for Societies

All the entries in Embedded software designs can be implemented on any available hardware platforms. We are also open to concepts described in posters, presentations and data sheets.

A panel of experts from industry and academia will judge the submissions. Submitted designs will be reviewed in a process similar to the review process for the technical papers. If deemed appropriate, the panel may award entries from students and industry professionals separately. The following list provides some of the criteria that will be applied in the selection of designs (all criteria need not be applicable/satisfied):

• Innovative concept / implementation
• Industry / practical application
• Description of the design process
• Reliability of design and implementation
• Performance of the design
• Novelty of application, algorithm, architecture
• Testing strategy (or Simulation for the conceptual category) and results
• Advancement of Green Technology

You may want to address some of the following questions and issues in your Project Report:

System Overview For Electronic Design Systems:

• Motivation for designing the system
• Is the implementation medium appropriate?
• Does this design satisfy all requirements , scalable, adaptable etc.
• What is unique about this project?
• What novel ideas or elegant solutions does the design include?
• Implementation and Engineering Considerations
• Specifications: for electronic designs functional, timing, electrical, and environmental (temperature).
• Trade-offs: architectural and circuit trade-offs, I/O considerations, floorplanning and interconnect approaches. Emphasis should be placed on "why" part.
• Timing and Critical Paths. What clocking scheme is used? Why?
• Which paths are critical? Have you simulated or measured their delays?
• Block Diagram, Logic / Circuit Diagrams, and Algorithms.
• Photo or Final Layout Plot (annotate so various blocks can be identified)
• Verification/Simulation (keep it brief): how did you assure that the chip would work as specified?

Testing:

• How did you, or will you, test this part with I/O pins only?
• What test equipment did you use?
• Actual test results, if available, should be summarized.

Statistics:

• Die size, total power, number of transistors, density of layout, maximum clock speed, and/or other relevant parameters.

System Overview For Embedded Design:

• Motivation for designing the system
• Is the implementation medium appropriate?
• Does this design satisfy all requirements, scalable, adaptable etc.
• Novelty and completeness of the design OR idea?
• Implementation and Engineering Considerations
• PoC( Proof of Concept) will be added advantage

Shortlisted entries will be given an opportunity to make a poster presentation or demo in the exhibit area at a special session of VLSI 2013 conference to be held in January 2013 in Pune, India. Participation certificates will be given to all the shortlisted entries. Award-winning entries will be recognized during the conference banquet.

However, please note that no travel subsidy is available for this purpose. For Fellowship details, please see section titled "Fellowships."

VLSI and Embedded Systems Conference does not require transfer of any ‘ intellectual property right’. However, it assumes that any submitted design can be publicly shared and any right protection required is done by the participants or their organizations prior to the submission. Please take all permissions / legal sign offs accordingly.

Design Contest paper submissions MUST

• Be in PDF format only
• Contain the title of the project
• Contain an abstract of not more than 300 words
• A complete description of the project
• Be no more than 6 pages (including the abstract, maximum of 10 figures/tables and references), double column, 10pt Times New Roman font.

The cover page must include

• Title of the design
• Names and email IDs of authors
• Mailing address and mobile number of the contact author
• Area of the application and implementation method
• Contribution of each group, if the prototype or software is jointly developed with non-academic parties

The submission should clarify the originality, distinguishing features, and performance of the design/implementation.

 Possible sections include: Introduction, objective, possible applications, target example, challenges in design/implementation, choice of approach and why, motivation, step by step design/implementation methodology, analysis, testing, results (clearly indicate simulation / experimental), future work, summary, conclusions, acknowledgments, references.

MS Word submission templates are available here

The conference will award limited number of fellowships, based on need and merit, to partially cover expenses of attendees from India. Students with short-listed design contest entries will be given preference. Fellowship application details will be posted at the website.

Questions to be directed to the Design Contest Chair: Mahinder Kumar Saluja, secretary@vlsidesignconference.org with email subject line "VLSI Design Contest".

Submission deadline :  1st November, 2012 (Final deadline)

Click here to Submit