International Innovation Conference on Chip Design at the Faculty of Engineering

Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Engineering, EnICS Labs, and Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC, the world's largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, hosted an international conference on technological breakthroughs shaping the future of the semiconductor industry. This is the third time TSMC has hosted their flagship innovation event in Israel within and in partnership with the Faculty of Engineering. Bar-Ilan is the only university in the world that regularly hosts joint innovation conferences with TSMC. As with previous conferences, hundreds of participants were in attendance, including academics and representatives from leading tech companies. This year’s conference highlighted innovation integrating artificial intelligence, both in building future hardware for the AI market and in terms of integrating AI into chip design processes.

Conference participants gained unique insights into the emerging semiconductor industry ecosystem, including areas such as advanced packaging, high-performance computing (HPC), and how AI capabilities are harnessed for next-generation chip design. The company's Israel Regional Manager, Ms. Kochavit Baliti Levy, delivered inspiring opening remarks, and was followed by a captivating keynote address by Mr. Paul de Bot, President of TSMC's EMEA (Europe, Africa, and Middle East) division. Prof. Alex Fish, Vice Dean of the Faculty and Co-Director of the EnICS Institute, delivered a keynote presentation showcasing Bar-Ilan University's research leadership in semiconductors and the impact of academic research on the semiconductor industry in the short, medium, and long term. Other presenters included Israeli semiconductor startups, chip design and software (EDA) companies, and additional academic representatives. There was also a poster session where Bar-Ilan students and students from other Israeli universities presented their research to the academic and professional audience.

EnICS Labs Institute is a unique research center where several research groups, specializing in different expertise areas in computer hardware and chip design, collaborate seamlessly as one team. The center is headed by six senior faculty members from the Faculty of Engineering: Prof. Alex Fish, Prof. Adam Teman, Prof. Osnat Keren, Prof. Yossi Shor, Prof. Itamar Levi, and Dr. Leonid Yavits. Alongside innovative research in semiconductors, the center emphasizes the link between academia and industry, as demonstrated by this conference. In this context, at the conference Prof. Fish revealed a new and unique collaboration between Bar-Ilan University and AVNET ASIC, whereby EnICS Institute and AVNET ASIC will establish an innovation center within the company's offices. The center will research the world’s most advanced design processes, chips, and three-dimensional packaging. "This collaboration, called EAIC (EnICS-AVNET Innovation Center), is the first of its kind in the world. It enables research that would be nearly impossible to achieve in an academic setting without such a unique collaborative model," said Prof. Fish. "The collaboration took months of joint work between the university and the company to create, and thanks to exceptional support from the university administration and Birad, Bar-Ilan’s technology transfer office."

"The semiconductor field is of international strategic importance, in terms of security, economy, and policy," said Zohar Yinon, Senior Vice President and CEO of Bar-Ilan University, during the conference. "EnICS Labs’ advanced applied research center at Bar-Ilan develops architectures that can be implemented in a very wide range of fields, including data centers, microelectronics, sensors, bio-medicine, robotics, and more. The collaboration with TSMC is a new model for innovation and collaboration between academia and industry."