Prof. Georges Gielen

Analog/mixed-signal integrated circuits are key in applications where electronics interface with the
physical world. The design of analog circuits, however, is time consuming and prone to errors, often
requiring multiple redesign cycles. The rebirth of AI and machine learning, and the recent rise of
generative AI methods, on the other hand, create a whole new spectrum of techniques to automate this
process. This invited talk will explore the high potential of using advanced machine learning (ML)
techniques to automatically synthesize and lay out analog integrated circuits. What are the capabilities
of LLMs and agentic AI to support or take over the task of analog circuit design? What is hype and what
will be feasible? Will we still need human analog designers in the future and how will they operate with
or without AI?

Biography:

Georges G.E. Gielen received the MSc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, in 1986 and 1990, respectively. Currently, he is Full Professor in the MICAS research division at the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) at KU Leuven. From August 2013 until July 2017 he served as Vice-Rector for the Group of Sciences, Engineering and Technology. In 2018 he was visiting professor at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. From 2020 to 2024 he served as Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) at KU Leuven. His research interests are in the design of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, and especially in analog and mixed-
signal CAD tools and design automation, including modeling, simulation, optimization and synthesis as well as testing. He is a frequently invited speaker/lecturer and coordinator/partner of several (industrial) research projects in this area, including an ERC Advanced Grant. He has (co-)authored 10 books and more than 700 publications in edited books, international journals and conference proceedings. He is a 1997 Laureate of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts in the discipline of Engineering. He is Fellow of the IEEE since 2002, and
received the IEEE CAS Mac Van Valkenburg award in 2015 and the IEEE CAS Charles Desoer award in 2020, as well as the EDAA Achievement Award in 2021. He is an elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium in the class of Technical Sciences of the Academia Europaea.

Email:

Address:MICAS research division, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Belgium, , Leuven, Belgium

Prof. Juin J. Liou

The industry of semiconductor is highly vital to the global economy, and nanoelectronics is a key component for such an industry. While research and development of nanoelectronics has been very active and fruitful in the past 40 years, many new semiconductor technologies have emerged recently which make the field of nanoelectronics vibrant, evolving, challenging, and unpredictable in the foreseeable future. Moreover, nanoelectronics has become a vital backbone in supporting the recent fast and explosive development of artificial intelligence and big data processing.
This talk has two parts, and it offers helpful information from the semiconductor industry perspective. An overview of the current status, evolution, and outlook of the field of nanoelectronics will first be introduced in this talk. This is followed by discussions of applications of nanoelectronics in relevance to AI and data transformation using current and emerging semiconductor technologies.

Biography:

Juin J. Liou received the B.S. (honors), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA in 1982, 1983, and 1987, respectively. In 1987, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, Florida where he held the positions of Pegasus Distinguished Professor, Lockheed Martin St. Laurent Professor, and UCF-Analog Devices Fellow. Dr. Liou is currently a chair professor at Shandong University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Liou’s research interests are electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection design, modeling and simulation, and characterization.
Dr. Liou holds 30 patents and has published 13 books, more than 380 journal papers (including 25 invited review articles), and more than 300 papers (including more than 150 keynote and invited papers) in international and national conference proceedings. Dr. Liou has served as a technical reviewer for various journals and publishers, general chair or technical program chair for a large number of international conferences, regional editor (in USA, Canada and South America) of the Microelectronics Reliability journal, and guest editor of 7 special issues in the IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, Microelectronics Reliability, Solid-State Electronics, World Scientific Journal, and International Journal of Antennas and Propagation. Dr. Liou received ten different awards on excellence in teaching and research from the University of Central Florida (UCF) and six different awards from the IEEE. Among them, he was awarded the UCF Pegasus Distinguished Professor (2009) – the highest honor bestowed to a faculty member at UCF, UCF Distinguished Researcher Award, IEEE Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator Award in 2004 for exemplary engineering teaching, research, and international collaboration, and IEEE Electron Devices Society Education Award in 2014 for promoting and inspiring global education and learning in the field of electron devices. His other honors are Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of IET, Fellow of AAIA, Fellow of Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Fellow of UCF-Analog Devices, Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Electron Device Society (EDS), and Distinguished Lecturer of National Science Council. He holds several honorary professorships, including the Chang Jiang Scholar Endowed Professor – the highest honorary professorship in China. Dr. Liou had served as the IEEE EDS Vice-President of Regions/Chapters, IEEE EDS Treasurer, IEEE EDS Finance Committee Chair, Member of IEEE EDS Board of Governors, and Member of IEEE EDS Educational Activities Committee.

Address:Shandong University of Science and Technology, , China

Prof. Ivan Minev of TUD Dresden University of Technology

Implanted bioelectronic interfaces are designed to exchange information between living tissues and electronic systems. Examples are deep brain stimulators, cochlear implants, spinal cord stimulators, and emerging neuroprosthetic systems aiming to restore functions lost through injury or disease. Central to this are electrode arrays. These components come into intimate contact with biological tissue and enable neural signals to cross the tissue–device boundary. Although electrode arrays used in current clinical practice are highly successful, important technological improvements are required.
I will describe the challenges of operating electrodes inside the body. One focus will be our efforts to formulate and process new electronic materials that more closely resemble biological tissues in their mechanical properties, hydration state, and bioactivity. Such materials may enable implanted electrodes with substantially improved biointegration. A second focus will be the opportunity to tailor electrode arrays to patient-specific anatomy and the particular niche of the nervous system being interfaced. We are addressing this through rapid prototyping (e.g., 3D printing) approaches.
Finally, I will consider whether neural interfaces can move beyond purely electrical communication. Are there other modalities that can support information exchange with the nervous system? I will discuss our efforts to create multimodal neural interfaces that combine electrical, biochemical, optical, and thermal information flows. The outlined approaches may broaden the scope and capabilities of future bioelectronic medicine therapies.

Biography:

Ivan Minev assumed the Else Kröner Professorship for Electronic Tissue Technologies at the Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, TUD Dresden University of Technology, in 2023. In parallel, he leads a department at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden.
He studied Physics at Imperial College London, graduating in 2008, and obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2012 with a thesis entitled Soft Neural Interfaces. He subsequently held research positions at EPFL in Switzerland and at the University of Sheffield.
Professor Minev is a former recipient of the Volkswagen Foundation’s Freigeist Fellowship and has held an ERC Starting Grant. He currently leads an ERC Consolidator Grant and is a core team member of the REC² (Responsible Electronics in the Climate-Change Era) Cluster of Excellence at TUD Dresden University of Technology. Since 2026, he is serving as Ambassador for the ERC for Bulgaria.
He is an inventor on three patents and has authored more than 30 journal publications, including articles in leading journals such as Science, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, and others.

Address:Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden and Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany