The grand finale of VLSITHON 2.0, a VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) competition, concluded with an award ceremony at the Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) auditorium in Dhaka on December 12. 

According to a press release, the event celebrated the achievements of six winning teams across two categories: RTL (Register Transfer Level) Design and Analog Design. The competition drew 235 participants from 20 universities, competing in 82 teams. 

In the RTL Design category, RUET Digital Dynamos was crowned as the champion with ASCII from BUET becoming the first runner-up and RUET 3idIOTs becoming second runner-up. In the Analog Design category, team HeliKopter was crowned as the champion with Team Exponentials becoming the first runner-up and ASCII becoming second runner-up.

The winners were awarded a total prize money of BDT 300,000. The event was organised by Ulkasemi, a semiconductor company, in collaboration with AUST's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and the IEEE Student Branch.

In his speech during the ceremony, Ulkasemi's CEO and President, Mohammad Enayetur Rahman highlighted the competition's role in showcasing the potential of young engineers, emphasising the critical role of semiconductor chips in technological advancements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). "The global semiconductor market is currently valued at $50 trillion, and it is expected to double by 2030. China has already announced plans to invest $47.5 billion to build a chip factory," said Enayetur.

He added that by 2030, this sector can transform into a multi-billion-dollar market. "With the right government and private sector support, the revenue from this industry could grow from $1 billion to $16 billion, generating new employment opportunities for our young engineers," said Enayetur.