Nan Sun, assistant professor and David Pan, professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Computing and Communication Foundations for their research project titled, ‘Automation for Synthesizable and Scaling Friendly Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuits’. The goal of the proposed research is to tackle two critical challenges for conventional analog and mixed-signal circuits to address scaling incompatibility and low design productivity. 

The Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) supports research and education projects that explore the foundations of computing and communication devices and their usage. The Division seeks advances in computing and communication theory, algorithms for computer and computational sciences, and architecture and design of computers and software. 

In 2013, Prof. Sun, received an NSF CAREER award for his work on Combining Nuclear Magnetic Resonance with Integrated Circuit Technology. It was part of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program that promotes junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Prof Pan also holds the Engineering Foundation Endowed Professorship #1. He received his Ph.D. degree (with honor) in Computer Science from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was a Research Staff Member with the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY. He has published over 200 technical papers in refereed journals and conferences, and is the holder of 8 U.S. patents.