UC Berkeley EECS announces the Vigyan Singhal Fund for Chip Design Education

UC Berkeley EECS is proud to announce the creation of the Vigyan Singhal Fund for Chip Design Education, established through the generosity of alumnus Vigyan Singhal (M.S. ‘94, Ph.D. ‘95 EECS), now Vice President of Hardware Engineering at NVIDIA. The fund will provide sustained support for instruction and the educational experience in the areas of formal verification and chip design, strengthening EECS’ ability to prepare students for leadership in the semiconductor industry.

Dr. Singhal, a pioneer in formal verification, is the founder and former CEO of Oski Technology, a company specializing in formal verification solutions that was acquired by NVIDIA in 2022. Over the course of his career, he has advanced both academic research and industry practice in chip design, and today leads hardware engineering efforts at NVIDIA.

He shared his motivation for giving:

“I wanted to donate to the chip design program because I wanted Berkeley EECS students to learn and practise advanced formal verification methods on industry-relevant designs. This is a gap in the university system today. I sincerely hope that my gift will help us work towards solving that.”

Reflecting on his own journey at Berkeley, he added:

“My Berkeley education helped me discover myself. The hard way. Working in Bob Brayton’s group taught me how to make an impact in the industry, thinking from first principles while learning with humility.”

Professor Emeritus Bob Brayton passed away earlier this year in January.

The fund will help ensure that Berkeley students gain access to cutting-edge design methodologies and hands-on opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges, carrying forward the department’s tradition of innovation in electrical engineering and computer science.