Recently, the 63rd IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC 2026) took place in the United States. As a leading event in the fields of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and chip and system architecture, DAC is widely regarded as a global benchmark for innovation in chip design technology. This year, DAC received 2,435 submissions, with an acceptance rate of around 22.3%. Notably, only 0.5% of the papers were shortlisted for the Best Paper Award, underscoring the conference’s stringent selection criteria.

Southeast University and the National Innovation Center for EDA, serving as the primary contributors, concentrated their efforts on AI-driven chip design (AI-for-EDA). They achieved a remarkable milestone by publishing 37 papers—the highest number globally for the first time—and securing two Best Paper nominations. Among the nominated works, Professor Wang Xi from Southeast University’s paper, titled "Large Language Model-Assisted Reference Model Generation for Agile Chip Development," and Professor Cao Peng’s paper, "Differentiable Clock Tree Synthesis Based on Probabilistic Graphical Models," stood out for their innovative contributions.

In addition to the academic accolades, a student team mentored by Professor Jiang Zhe excelled in the global hardware hacking competition, Hack@DAC 2026, clinching second place. Meanwhile, a team led by Professor Yu Zhiyi and Associate Professor Xiao Shanlin from Sun Yat-sen University also showcased their research on automated design for brain-inspired computing at DAC 2026, further highlighting the vibrant ecosystem of innovation in the field.