Event Summary

The two-day event brought together industry representatives, university faculty, and students for technical discussions, research presentations, workforce engagement, and networking. Participation was strong across both days, with several industry liaisons remaining engaged through the very end of the Day 2 sessions.

The event’s primary technical sessions were held in the Texas Instruments Auditorium at The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas. The auditorium sits in the heart of the engineering building, making it a fitting setting for the GRC Annual Review’s technical presentations and industry engagement, while prospective engineers moved between classes around the event. Many students who were new to semiconductors and SRC stopped to inquire about the event as they walked by.

Todd Younkin, CEO of SRC, welcomed attendees with a simple challenge: “Absorb the technical sessions, engage in deep conversations, meet people you have never met before, and uncover meaningful insights from this focused gathering of SRC members across the semiconductor ecosystem.”

Industry Engagement Throughout Professor Led Technical Sessions Around Pathfinding Semiconductor Research

The technical presentations were highly engaging, with industry liaisons (Intel, NXP, Texas Instruments, Mediatek, TSMC, Tokyo Electron),  and academic researchers representing more than 30 leading global universities,  spanning across tenure representing a broad range of experience, from new hires to seasoned industry professionals with 30+ years in the field.

The attendance provided a great combination of curiosity and tenured wisdom. They immersed in the research outcomes by asking probing questions and providing industry relevant perspectives and direction for academic research. Conversations frequently continued during the ample networking breaks between sessions.

The event also provided an opportunity to connect students directly with the semiconductor industry. Several leading semiconductor companies such as Intel, NXP, Texas Instruments, Siemens, ASM hosted tables at “SemiConnections: Wired for Work | Powering the Semiconductor Workforce.” The tables received good student attendee foot traffic, and several students who were not participating in the SRC event stopped to inquire about the activities, providing additional visibility and outreach beyond the registered attendees.

A highlight of Day 1 was the keynote presentation by Atul Kwatra of Intel, titled “HW/SW Co-Design: A Systems Perspective.” The presentation described a mission to deliver secure, efficient, and environmentally responsible solutions that enable scalable, high-performance computing from edge to cloud, supporting a trustworthy and sustainable digital future.

The keynote emphasized a future shift from optimizing individual components toward scalable, system-level solutions for datacenters and edge-computing platforms, increasingly accelerated by AI. Advanced packaging was highlighted as an important technology for enabling scalable and efficient compute systems. A central theme was the need for system-level co-optimization across compute, memory, communication, utilization, energy, and cost, bringing hardware and software considerations together to address future computing requirements. This provided a strong framing for the technical agenda that followed.

The technical program demonstrated a broad cross-section of semiconductor research spanning AI hardware and HW/SW co-design, semiconductor materials and devices, security, advanced packaging, heterogeneous integration, power electronics, analog/mixed-signal circuits, and reliability. AI and computing presentations addressed hardware-algorithm co-design for edge learning, DNN sparsity, model compression, chiplet-based AI systems, optical neural-network acceleration, secure low-quantization AI hardware, in-memory and 3D compute accelerators, and early power-performance evaluation of AI accelerators. Security research covered hardware defects and silent data corruption, lifecycle security for 2.5D/3D systems, homomorphic encryption, firmware vulnerabilities, and hardware fuzzing.

Materials and device topics included ferroelectric HZO, high-k gate oxides, 2D semiconductors, oxide semiconductor devices, selective deposition, EUV photoresists, and BEOL-compatible materials and processes. Advanced packaging research encompassed wafer-level hybrid bonding, fine-pitch 3D heterogeneous integration, packaging metrology, warpage, redistribution layers, thermal and mechanical reliability, and sustainable packaging materials. The program also featured innovations in data converters, power and clock management, GaN device reliability, DC-DC conversion, EV power electronics, and wide-bandgap power switching. Collectively, the presentations highlighted research across the semiconductor technology stack, from materials and devices through circuits, packaging, architecture, and systems.

The Industry-PI Networking Dinner, hosted at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, provided a relaxed setting for industry liaisons and academic researchers to move beyond the formal presentations and engage in deeper technical conversations. The extended interaction created valuable opportunities to explore research challenges, exchange perspectives, strengthen existing relationships, and identify areas for future collaboration within the SRC community.

Day 2 featured a lunch presentation by Dr. Ken O of UTD/TxACE, providing an overview of the TxACE center that co-hosted the event, providing an history of collaboration with SRC serving as another another focal point for engagement among attendees. Dr. O welcomed attendees and invited them to participate in the TxACE Symposium, to be held on October 19, 2026, at the UTD campus. TxACE 2026 Symposium

Student Research and Workforce Engagement

Students were highly visible throughout the event, not only presenting alongside several PIs and, in some cases, on behalf of their PIs, but also showcasing 34 research posters across the two days. The poster sessions were well received, with strong industry engagement and participation. This interaction was further enhanced by students visiting one another’s posters, engaging in deep technical conversations, and networking with their peers, potentially sowing the seeds for lifelong friendships and future profesional collaborations.

Four poster winners were recognized, consisting of two Design and two Technology winners, with one winner from each category selected each day. The poster sessions provided an additional forum for students, faculty, and industry participants to connect around ongoing semiconductor research.

The event showcased strong collaboration between the SRC team comprised of Rosa Persaud and Courtney Boykin the academic partner and hosts UTD, Texas Analog Center of Excellence Lucien Finley and Hom Khadija.

Overall, the event combined technical research exchange, industry engagement, student development, and workforce connections. The combination of faculty presentations, student posters, industry liaison participation, keynote perspectives, SemiConnections, and informal networking created multiple opportunities for interaction across the SRC research community and the broader semiconductor ecosystem.