Valeria Bertacco to Receive Early Career Award from IEEE CEDA

Valeria Bertacco, associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering, has been chosen to receive this year’s Early Career Award from the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). CEDA established the Early Career Award in 2009 to recognize an individual who has made innovative and substantial technical contributions to the area of EDA in the early stages of her or his career.

Professor Bertacco will be recognized for her outstanding contributions in the area of hardware verification, including her work on semi-formal verification, runtime and post-silicon verification, and correctness-constrained execution at the International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD) on November 7, 2011.

“Valeria Bertacco’s creativity and technical contributions are well recognized,” said Professor Donatella Sciuto of Politecnico di Milano and president-elect of CEDA. “We are delighted to present the Early Career Award to her.”

Prof. Bertacco’s research interests are in the functional correctness of hardware designs, focusing in the creation of novel techniques to guarantee correctness in face of functional errors and temporary and permanent transistor failures. Her present research is centered upon the development of new algorithms for hybrid verification and post-silicon validation and debug. This focus is extended to support the correctness of designs after completion and in the field, through techniques that use dynamic verification and novel reliability mechanisms to extend the lifetime of an IC design and to provide guarantees on its correct behavior, in face of the challenges posed by fragile silicon and extreme design complexity.

Before joining the department, Prof. Bertacco was a member of the Advanced Technology Group of Synopsys, a position in which she was a lead developer of Vera and Magellan, two popular verification tools. Prof. Bertacco is also an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on CAD, the author of three books, and a member of several conference program committees.

Prof. Bertacco has taught courses in Computer Architecture (EECS 370), Digital Logic Design (EECS 270), and Digital Design Verification (EECS 578). She is affiliated with the Advanced Computer Architecture Laboratory in the Computer Science and Engineering Division of the EECS Department.

About the IEEE Council on EDA

The IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) provides a focal point for EDA activities spread across six IEEE societies (Antennas and Propagation; Circuits and Systems; Computer; Electron Devices; Microwave Theory and Techniques; and Solid State Circuits). It sponsors more than 12 conferences, including the Design Automation Conference (DAC), International Conference in CAD (ICCAD) and Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE). CEDA publishes IEEE Transactions on CAD and the IEEE Embedded Systems Letters. CEDA is increasingly involved in recognizing its leaders via the A. Richard Newton Award, Early Career Award and Phil Kaufmann Award.