Synopsys offering professional VLSI education to Armenia's youth

Synopsys and State Engineering University of Armenia (SEUA) have announced a new educational program in the specialty "Semiconductor Physics and Microelectronics". The four-year Bachelor program will start in September 2009, providing an advanced education in microelectronics. This program is aimed at molding young talents for today's highly sophisticated VLSI chip design industry by training them on semiconductor physics and using of latest EDA software tools.
Also this program will further progress to offering Master and PhD qualification in the same area of study after completion of bachelor program.

The SAED program utilizes Synopsys' electronic design automation software and Educational Design Kits. The current SAED SEUA curriculum has been translated from Armenian into several languages and is taught at prestigious universities in countries worldwide, including Russia, China, Europe and the United States of America.

"Extending our successful relationship with SEUA, Armenia's flagship technical university, continues our tradition of investing in Armenia's youth and in Armenia's educational system," said Rich Goldman, vice president for Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Synopsys, and chief executive officer of Synopsys Armenia CJSC. "Especially during these times of severe economic stress, we believe this kind of investment is key to the development of Armenia's High Tech economy, and we invite other companies to join us in supporting proven university-industry collaborations. This new educational program further demonstrates the advancement of Armenia's High Tech economy."

"First of all it should be noted that through our collaboration with Synopsys a unique educational activity is being realized. Life has proven that this educational model serves as an example not only to Moscow Universities, but also for many universities in a number of countries in our region. An example of our success is that the educational model developed in cooperation with Synopsys is being applied to a new four-year educational project in Cybernetics department," said SEUA Rector Professor Vostanik Marukhyan.

"By starting studies in the new specialty of Semiconductor Physics & Microelectronics, we are expanding a model of cooperation that has realized much success during the past few years. Establishing the new specialty to start from the first year of the Bachelor program will allow us to administer and control the quality of studies during the entire program. This should contribute significantly to increasing the quality of our graduates," said Professor Vazgen Melikyan, director of SAED, honorable scientist of Republic of Armenia.