ESL Student Takes Bronze Medal at TSMC Research Competition

Sidharth Balasubramanian, an ESL Graduate Student working with Prof. Waleed Khalil, received a bronze medal in the circuit design technologies category at the TSMC Outstanding Student Research competition for his work on "An Ultra Wideband Direct Digital-to-RF Digital-to-Analog Converter Using Image Replica and Nonlinearity Cancelling Architecture."

TSMC noted that Balasubramanian was awarded this prize due to the transformational aspect of his work in building a "purely digital, mixerless transmitter utilizing the digital strengths of advanced nm technology."

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Outstanding Student Research Award is highly regarded in the academic world. In addition to being a forum for professors and students around the world to showcase their research, it also fosters the exchange of knowledge between industry and academia.

TSMC received more than 200 research papers from around the world, of which eight applicants in the circuit area were selected as finalists and invited to Taiwan to present their work. After meticulous review, judges selected gold, silver and bronze awards in each category, as well as commendations. Scholars from Cornell University, UC-Berkeley, Georgia Tech and Cambridge University won gold awards, while MIT, Stanford, and National Taiwan University took silver awards. Bronze awards were given to scholars from Ohio State, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, National Tsinghua University (Taiwan), National Taiwan University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Judging for the TSMC Outstanding Student Research Award includes two rounds: a research paper and an oral presentation. In their papers, students must give a clear explanation of the purpose and relevance of their research, as well as its contribution to the field. TSMC Fellows, Technical Committee members and other experts in the field then judge the paper based on its effectiveness, correctness, and conciseness. In the presentation round, students who have passed the first stage must present their research before the Award Committee in Taiwan or by teleconference and participate in a discussion with committee members, who may also give suggestions for further research. After presenting to a panel of TSMC and international experts, all finalist students and their advisors were invited to the award ceremony in Taipei, where the top three awards in each category were announced.