Highly qualified workforce for chip design in Russia continues to grow as graduates from Synopsys-MIET joint Master’s program graduate and become employed by leading semiconductor companies in the region Synopsys, Inc., a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, and the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (MIET), today announced that another 17 master’s students of the Synopsys and MIET joint educational program successfully completed the program and are ready to begin their professional engineering careers. This is the fifth year of the Synopsys-MIET joint two-year master’s program providing advanced education in microelectronics. The program is based on Synopsys EDA tools and a customized curriculum for very large scale integration (VLSI) design offered by the Synopsys Armenia Educational Department (SAED) through the Synopsys University Program. The program is focused on training highly qualified specialists in the field of VLSI design at the Synopsys-MIET Educational Center. To date, 74 students have been graduated from the Synopsys-MIET program and are pursuing careers that can help lead Russia into its next stage of technology development. All 74 graduates are already employed by leading Semiconductor companies. They work as leading specialists at Micron, Angstrem, The Institute for Design Problems in Microelectronics of the Russian Academy of Science, NI ELVIS, and other semiconductor companies that contribute to Russia’s growing high-tech industry. Using a proven educational model of cooperation between industry and academia makes possible the program to provide Russia’s workforce with industry-ready graduates who have the knowledge and skills required to be quickly become productive in the industry. During this year’s commencement ceremony, Rich Goldman, vice president of Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Synopsys and honorable Professor of MIET, conferred Synopsys Certificates of Achievement to the graduates. “We inaugurated our joint program with MIET five years ago with the intent of contributing to the Russian semiconductor industry. The results are clear. The highly trained specialists graduating from this program are making a significant contribution,” said Mr. Goldman. “We fully expect this year’s graduates to continue this trend and are looking forward to furthering our cooperation with our reliable and good partner, MIET.” “We are glad for having such a successful cooperation with Synopsys. Russian employers are grateful to our university and Synopsys for the preparation of such highly skilled professionals. We hope our cooperation will continue for years,” said Prof. Vladimir Bespalov, First Vice-Rector of MIET. “I am glad that the program is gaining more and more autonomy due to the fact that some of the program graduates are already PhD students, and take part in the teaching process,” said Prof. Vazgen Melikyan, director of SAED and honorable scientist of the Republic of Armenia. “In addition to the 90 nanometer Educational Design Kit, which enables state-of-the-art design in an educational environment, by the end of this year MIET will be receive the 32/28 nanometer Educational Design Kit.” “I'm already enjoying the benefits of the state-of-the-art education I've received from the Synopsys-MIET joint educational program. Those two years of my study have given me opportunity to improve my theoretical knowledge and skills in using the most advanced EDA tools. And now, employed at Micron, I contribute to the development of the microelectronics design industry in our country,” said Roman Matveev, a 2011 graduate of the Synopsys - MIET joint educational master’s program and a specialist at Micron.

---