Atrenta expands R&D operations in Sri Lanka

Monday, 29 July 2013 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Atrenta Inc., the leading provider of SoC Realisation solutions for the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries, announced last week that Dr. Ajith Pasqual, who serves as the Head of the Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, has joined Atrenta’s Technical Advisory Board. “Sri Lanka has been a highly productive addition to our worldwide R&D locations,” said Dr. Ajoy Bose, Chairman, president and CEO of Atrenta. “To our long-term locations in Noida, India and San Jose, California, we have added Grenoble, France, Shanghai, China and Colombo, Sri Lanka. This global R&D footprint has allowed us to build industry-leading products and stay close to our customers.” Atrenta has built an R&D team in Sri Lanka with 35 engineers working in the city of Colombo and a plan to expand the team to 50 by the end of 2013. Atrenta is the first electronic design automation (EDA) company to build a presence in the region and has been working with Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Colombo Universities to recruit local engineers there. “We have found exceptional talent in Sri Lanka – talent that rivals the quality of graduates from tier-1 schools in India,” said Mo Movahed, Vice President of Engineering at Atrenta. “Atrenta has enjoyed active collaboration with universities and research institutes in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. This collaboration now extends to Sri Lanka and we welcome Dr. Pasqual to our Technical Advisory Board.” Dr. Ajith Pasqual presently serves as Head of the Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa as well as the director for the Centre for Information Technology Services there. His primary research interests are in computer vision, processor and SoC architectures and he leads the Reconfigurable Digital Systems Research Group at the University, which works in the area of hardware acceleration, novel architectures for application specific processors and SoCs to improve performance and power efficiency.  “During the last decade, our department has built significant expertise in reconfigurable logic systems through specific research projects on its own and in collaboration with industry,” said Dr. Ajith Pasqual. “However, a major deficiency has been a lack of opportunities for EDA development in local industry to allow our graduates to make use of their expertise. The presence of Atrenta in Sri Lanka has had a profound impact on the mindset of undergraduates, with many choosing EDA as their preferred career path. This has also encouraged the department to fast track the integration of IC design into the curriculum.” The University of Moratuwa plans to expand its curriculum in EDA topics and electronics as a result of Atrenta’s presence there. Atrenta plans to hold an opening celebration for its R&D centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka in August 2013.

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