Key takeaways ▼
The Design Automation Conference is the premier semiconductor ecosystem conference. I have attended 43 DACs including the most recent one in Long Beach. My first DAC was in Albuquerque NM. It was a month after my University so i was still in college mode. DAC was quite the celebration back then so I fit right in
I remember conferences in Orange County, San Diego, Austin, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas, and of course San Francisco. This year, for the first time, DAC is in San Jose. I expect a record setting amount of attendees and exhibitors, absolutely.
DAC, The Chips to Systems Conference, has opened its 2027 Call for Contributions, inviting researchers and industry practitioners to explore the technologies changing electronic design. Scheduled for July 11–14, 2027, at the San Jose Convention Center, the event will be DAC’s first gathering in San Jose. Its theme reflects a shift across the industry: artificial intelligence is influencing both the systems engineers build and the methods they use to build them.
The announcement positions DAC as a meeting point for original research and practical engineering experience. Contributions will span AI, Design, electronic design automation, Security and Systems. Participants can submit research papers, engineering presentations, panel proposals, special sessions, workshops and tutorials, alongside opportunities in the DAC Pavilion and Exhibitor Forum.
That breadth is important because the challenges surrounding AI do not fit neatly into a single discipline. Designing computing systems for AI applications raises questions about performance, power consumption and integration. Introducing AI into design workflows creates another set of questions about verification, reliability and how engineers assess the results produced by increasingly automated tools. DAC’s program provides several ways to examine these interconnected issues.
Agentic AI is explicitly part of the conference’s framing. Its emergence in design workflows makes the discussion more consequential than a simple comparison of productivity tools. As software takes on more complex tasks, engineering teams need to understand where automation performs well, where oversight remains necessary and how to establish confidence in its output. Contributions grounded in evidence and implementation experience can help clarify those boundaries.
The engineering tracks offer a route for that practical knowledge. They cover front-end design, back-end design, intellectual property, and systems and software, with additional opportunities for engineering special sessions. These categories reflect the range of work required to turn a design concept into an electronic product. They also encourage discussion of problems encountered across different stages of development.
Research contributions serve a complementary purpose. New methods need a forum where their assumptions, results and limitations can be examined. Panels and special sessions can bring competing approaches into the same conversation, while workshops and tutorials can help participants understand unfamiliar techniques. Together, these formats create opportunities to move knowledge between academic investigation, tool development and engineering practice.
The move to San Jose gives the conference a setting close to the semiconductor, software and systems companies concentrated in Silicon Valley. That proximity could support exchanges between international contributors and local industry teams. However, the announcement also emphasizes participation from the global design community, including established specialists, emerging researchers and engineers offering new perspectives.
DAC 2027’s leadership similarly spans academia and industry. General Chair David Z. Pan represents The University of Texas at Austin and DeepWeave, while Vice Chair Natarajan Viswanathan comes from Cadence Design Systems. Technical Program Chair Ambar Sarkar of NVIDIA is joined by co-chairs Rajiv Joshi of IBM and Jiang Hu of Texas A&M University.
Why does the call matter now? It creates an opportunity to shape the technical conversation before the conference program is finalized. Contributors can bring forward unresolved problems, challenge prevailing assumptions and share lessons that other teams can use. For practitioners, that means documenting engineering experience. For researchers, it means connecting proposed advances with the constraints facing real development programs.
The strongest contributions will help distinguish demonstrated progress from ambitious claims. AI’s expanding role makes careful evaluation especially valuable: a promising technique must be understood in terms of its accuracy, cost, applicability and limitations. The conference offers a forum for those discussions, although its eventual impact will depend on the quality of submissions and exchanges.
Bottom line: The announcement is therefore more than an invitation to present. It asks the design community to help define how chips, tools and systems evolve together. Prospective contributors should consult DAC’s official call for the submission categories, requirements and deadlines. The significance lies in turning distributed expertise into knowledge engineers can examine, apply and build upon as AI reshapes electronic design.
Also Read:
Beyond the Die: Verifying the Connected Chip
From Simulation to Deployment: Why Physical AI Matters
TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2026: Spotlight on Emerging Technologies
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