Xu Honored with DAC Under-40 Innovators Award
ECE Assistant Professor Xiaolin Xu was named a recipient of the 2025 IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC) Under-40 Innovators Award. This prestigious honor recognizes up to five early-career researchers each year whose pioneering work is shaping the future of electronic design and automation—spanning emerging areas such as neuromorphic computing, biological systems, cybersecurity, and cyber-physical systems.
“Young innovators are redefining and shaping the future of the design automation field in industry, research labs, start-ups and academia, and DAC wants to recognize the best and brightest,” notes the DAC website.
Xu was formally recognized at the 62nd ACM/IEEE DAC, also known as The Chips to Systems Conference, held June 22–25, 2025, at Moscone Center West in San Francisco, California. Widely regarded as the premier global event for electronic design automation, DAC brings together a diverse community representing more than 1,000 organizations—including system architects, circuit designers, validation engineers, CAD managers, academic researchers, and senior executives. The conference features nearly 300 peer-reviewed technical sessions on the latest research and industry trends, along with an exhibition of approximately 135 leading and emerging companies across EDA, AI, IP design, and silicon systems. DAC is co-sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), with support from ACM’s Special Interest Group on Design Automation (ACM SIGDA) and IEEE’s Council on Electronic Design Automation (IEEE CEDA).
As CMOS scaling slows and new integration techniques gain momentum, innovators like Xu are at the forefront of driving this transformation across academia, industry, research labs, and startups. Xu’s recognition reflects his sustained research excellence and leadership in areas such as hardware security and energy-efficient AI computing.