At this year’s conference for design automation – one of the world’s largest conferences on the topic - JKU Professor Robert Wille was presented with the Under-40 Innovators Award and JKU doctoral student Alwin Zulehner received an award for his dissertation project.

Prof. Robert Wille has made a name for himself in the field of computer science over the past few years in the field of, among other things, smartphone design, quantum computer simulations, improving search engines, and automatically interpreting legal regulations. In adhering to a long-standing tradition of the art of engineering in Linz, the computer scientist continues to think outside of the box in his field, adding interdisciplinary features to his work by including areas such as electrical engineering, quantum physics, medicine, and law. His contributions have not only resulted in scientific successes, but have also attracted the attention of well-known companies such as Infineon, IBM, Google or AMD as well as other medium-sized companies.

Robert Wille was presented with the Under-40 Innovators Award in recognition of these contributions and more accomplished at a relatively young age. Presented in recognition of those age 40 and under who have made outstanding contributions to the field of design automation, the award winners are among the "who's who" of the industry and regarded as those who define and shape the future of the field. The award was presented at the Design Automation Conference, the world's largest conference for design automation which annually attracts over 1,000 academics and scientists.

But that was not all: At the same conference, Alwin Zulehner was also presented with an award in recognition for his outstanding dissertation on quantum computers - a new technology that is superior to conventional computers when it comes to certain applications. Although still in its infancy, Alwin Zulehner is developing methods that can already be used today to simulate these computers of the future. His work won him a Best Poster Award at the Design Automation Conference.

About Prof. Wille:
Robert Wille, JKU Professor of Integrated Circuit and System Design since October 2015, was one of the JKU’s youngest professors when he was appointed at the age of 32. Since then, he has been head of the Institute for Integrated Circuits in the academic area of Computer Science. He recently took over the management of the newly established LIT Secure and Correct Systems Lab at the JKU. During his career, he has published over 200 articles for journals and conferences and has written several books about designing circuits and systems. In addition to the Under-40 Innovators Award, past awards include, among others, the Young Researcher Award, a Google Faculty Research Award, and Best Paper Awards.

About Prof. Zulehner:
Alwin Zulehner completed his Master's degree at the JKU in 2015 and since January 2016, he has been working at the Institute for Integrated Circuits. His research focuses on developing new design and simulation methods for new computer technologies, particularly for quantum computers. His work is already being used in official IBM tools. He has already received awards in recognition of his outstanding dissertation, which he expects to complete at the JKU this summer.