Rob Rutenbar has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design. The award is presented yearly by the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA).
Rutenbar is being honored for his pioneering contributions to algorithms and tools for analog and mixed-signal designs. As an academic, he developed a wide range of fundamental tools for analog integrated circuit (IC) designs. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Neolinear, one of the most successful analog tool companies, to bring his research efforts to the larger design community. As an educator, he reworked his CMU course, “VLSI CAD: Logic to Layout,” into a Massive, Open, Online Course (MOOC) in 2013, providing EDA training to the entire planet; to date, his course has connected with over 75,000 registered learners from more than 150 countries. The award presentation ceremony was attended by many of Rutenbar’s former students and industry colleagues.