Semiconductors in the Caribbean
This IEEE EDS Mini-Colloquium will bring together experts in semiconductor technologies and AI systems to engage with students, researchers and industry professionals.
Topics will include semiconductor devices, emerging technologies, and their applications in modern electronic and AI systems.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
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- University of the West Indies
- St. Augustine Campus
- St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Building: Block 1
- Room Number: Room 101
- Starts 05 May 2026 04:00 AM UTC
- Ends 05 October 2026 12:00 AM UTC
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Arokia Nathan of Shandong University
Biography:
Arokia Nathan is a pioneering engineer and academic specializing in thin-film transistor technologies, flexible electronics, and digital display systems. He holds the Chair of Photonic Systems and Displays at the University of Cambridge, having previously held the Sumitomo Chair of Nanotechnology at University College London. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada. His research has spanned sensor technology, ultra-low power transistor electronics for IoT wearables, and mm-Wave radios on glass. He is the author of over 600 technical publications, six books, and holds more than 150 patents. His work has directly led to the founding of several spin-off companies with collective venture capital investment exceeding US$100 million. In 2020, he received the IEEE Electron Devices Society J.J. Ebers Award for his contributions to thin-film and flexible/foldable electronics. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and an IEEE/EDS Distinguished Lecturer.
Jacobus Swart of University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
Biography:
Jacobus W. Swart is a Dutch-born professor and a central figure in the development of Brazil's microelectronics research infrastructure. Born in Heiloo, The Netherlands in 1950, he received both his Engineering degree and Doctorate from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), followed by postdoctoral work at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He joined UNICAMP (State University of Campinas) in 1988, becoming full professor in 1997, and served as Director of UNICAMP's Centre for Semiconductor Components (CCS). He was named an IEEE Fellow in 2014 in recognition of his contributions to microelectronics education in Brazil and is an IEEE Electron Devices Society Distinguished Lecturer. He served as IMEC's representative in Brazil from 2013 to 2020. He has authored or co-authored 76 journal papers and over 220 conference articles, supervised more than 60 theses, and authored a widely used Brazilian semiconductor textbook, Semicondutores: Fundamentos, técnicas e aplicações. His research spans silicon and compound semiconductor technologies, device modelling, and circuit design.
Fernando Guarin of IEEE/Semiconductor Industry
Biography:
Fernando Guarin is a Colombian-American microelectronics reliability engineer with over four decades of experience in the semiconductor industry. He earned his BSEE from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, his MSEE from the University of Arizona, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York. He began his career at National Semiconductor Corporation (1980–1988), working in the Military and Aerospace Operations division. In 1988 he joined IBM's microelectronics division, where he spent 27 years researching the reliability physics and modelling of advanced Bipolar, CMOS, and Silicon Germanium BiCMOS technologies, reaching the title of Senior Member of Technical Staff. He subsequently joined GlobalFoundries, where he retired in 2022 as Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, having led the reliability team responsible for qualifying 5G semiconductor technologies. He is a recognized authority on device reliability and has published extensively in international journals and conferences.
Victor Grimblatt of Semiconductor Industry
Biography:
Victor Grimblatt is Executive Director of R&D Engineering at Synopsys, where he leads a team based in Chile developing Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software for chip synthesis and mask fracturing. He founded and has directed the Synopsys Chile R&D Centre since 2006, which is one of the few EDA research centres in Latin America. He holds engineering degrees in microelectronics from the Institute Nationale Polytechnique de Grenoble (France) and from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Chile), and earned his PhD in Electronics from the University of Bordeaux in 2021. He has worked in EDA since 1988, with earlier roles at VLSI Technology Inc., Compass Design Automation, Motorola Semiconductors, and Honeywell Bull. He served on the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) Board of Governors (2021–2023, re-elected 2025–2027) and chaired the IEEE Chilean CASS chapter for over a decade. He was awarded IEEE Region 9 Outstanding Engineer in 2023 and the CASS Meritorious Service Award in 2024. His research interests include EDA, IoT, and smart agriculture.
Edmundo Gutierrez-D of National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, Mexico
Biography:
Edmundo A. Gutiérrez-D. is a Mexican semiconductor physicist and IEEE Fellow, currently serving as General Director of the National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) in Puebla, Mexico. He received his PhD in 1993 from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium, with a dissertation on the electrical performance of submicron CMOS technologies at cryogenic temperatures. He has held research and leadership roles at Motorola Mexico, Intel Mexico, and several international universities including Simon Fraser University (Canada) and the Technical University of Vienna (Austria). He is the author of two major reference books: Low Temperature Electronics (Academic Press, 2000) and Nano-Scaled Semiconductor Devices (IET Press, 2016) and has published more than 160 scientific papers. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability and as Editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. He has supervised 17 PhD theses and is a member of Mexico's National System of Researchers.