Courses offered at North Dakota State University — bridging research and practice in IC design and hardware engineering.
Six courses spanning graduate and undergraduate levels in VLSI, ML hardware, power electronics, and digital design.
Advanced graduate course covering modern CAD tools, physical design algorithms, design automation flows, and performance optimization methodologies for VLSI systems. Includes hands-on labs with industry-standard EDA tools.
Design and optimization of custom hardware accelerators for deep learning and Edge-AI workloads. Topics include dataflow architectures, systolic arrays, quantization-aware design, and deployment on embedded platforms.
Custom IC layout, circuit verification, and fabrication-aware design strategies. Covers CMOS analog and digital cell design, parasitic extraction, and tape-out preparation using industry VLSI design flows.
Fundamentals of processor architecture, instruction set design, memory hierarchy, pipelining, and performance optimization. Students design and simulate a working processor from the ground up.
Core concepts in combinational and sequential digital logic design. Topics include Boolean algebra, Karnaugh maps, finite state machines, and FPGA-based implementation with hardware description languages.
Switching converter topologies, magnetic component design, DC-DC and AC-DC conversion, and high-efficiency power supply design. Emphasis on real-world applications in on-chip power delivery and EV systems.