September 30, 2025
Submission Site Opens
DAC seeks proposals for the Engineering Special Sessions. These sessions intend to highlight timely, visionary, and emerging topics for the respective Engineering Track audiences focused on practical applications of chip and system development, and are typically panels, tutorials, or a combination thereof.
DAC is committed to inclusion and diversity, and values the representation of varied viewpoints. Sessions are expected to represent the spectrum of diversity in the Electronic Design ecosystem. We strongly encourage sessions that embrace diversity, and are inclusive of regions, industries and organizations that make up our ecosystem.
Special Sessions (Engineering Tracks): Special sessions are broad-interest sessions within the technical conference program covering topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) Design, EDA, and Systems, Chips to Chiplets, Security, Quantum Computing and future interest areas. A key aspect of special sessions is that they should be of broad interest, timely and informative, while not overlapping with the content of traditional Engineering Track presentations.
Great examples of topics from previous Design Automation Conferences that drew significant audiences were tutorials and panels on next-generation chiplet interfaces, panels on AI for EDA and EDA for AI, as well as sessions examining the future of design flow aspects like verification, digital implementation, and hardware/software co-development.
The deadline to submit for Call for Contributions is January 12, 2026.
All presenters are required to register for the conference at the Engineering registration rate by April 24, 2026.
Submission Format
All Engineering Track Special Session suggestions must be submitted via the DAC website and include the required information indicated below.
Session Title: The title will be published in the conference program
Event Abstract: Provide an abstract of no more than 300 words for the session. The abstract should be worded so as to attract the attendees to the session.
Topic Areas: Select one or two topic areas from the dropdown menu.
Keywords: Select up to three keywords from the dropdown menu.
Event contributors: Provide name, affiliation, and full contact information of organizer(s) and proposed session chair.
Presentation titles: The title of each individual contribution to the session.
Co-Presenters: Please provide names, affiliations and contact information for each contributor
Short abstract of each talk: Please provide an abstract of 150 words or less that describes each proposed presentation.
Additional details: Please provide the following information in this section
Proposed length of the session: 90 minutes
Structure for the session: What is your preferred structure (talks + panel, tutorial + talks, only talks) and outline each speaker with their time duration
Intended audience: Subject area and level of expertise. Please also indicate the focus of the session: (technical, business or mixed).
Viewpoints and session balances: How does the session holistically cover the viewpoints or the main sub-areas in the session topic? What is the balance between vendors and users, technologists and methodologists, academics and industry, various competing technology solutions, etc.?
Presenter’s qualifications: For each presenter, please provide a brief bio and her/his qualifications relevant to the topics of the special session (less than 150 words each)
Additional information: If you have any other supporting information relevant to the proposal, you may include them here.
IMPORTANT: Do not submit your special session proposal until you have confirmed the participation of the proposed chair and speakers. Do not wait to find out if the special session has been accepted before obtaining confirmation.
All presenters are required to register for the conference at the Engineering registration rate.
Timeline
January 12, 2026
Submission Deadline
March 2, 2026
Accept/Reject Notifications Sent
March 23, 2026
Presentation Confirmation Due
April 24, 2026
Presenter Registration Deadline
April 29, 2026
Draft Slides/Poster Submission
Deadline
May 28, 2026
Slide Feedback Provided
June 4, 2026
Final Slides Due
July 26, 2026
DAC Begins
Preparing the Special Session Proposal
There are a number of things to consider in a special session proposal:
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Technical or business? The majority of special sessions have a technical focus, which is appropriate, as they are part of the technical program. Sometimes they have a mixed focus, but a business-only special session would likely be better as a panel.
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Consider why a special session is appropriate and what the overall theme is meant to convey. What is the key issue? Why have it at DAC, and why in this year? (i.e., what makes it timely?) Why the special session format? Also, be sure to bring out uniqueness of the topic.
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There are only a few special sessions in each DAC, and the topic should be of significant importance to the technical audience at this time. The speakers need to convey compelling information about the topic, and it must be of high value to the attendees.
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Who are the invited speakers? What are the title, the length and the topic of each talk? Speakers should be confirmed in advance before making the proposal. They should know and agree with the theme of the session. What ties the speakers together into the overall theme, and what is the order of the talks? A special session may have an interesting thematic structure – for example, the first talk may give a mini-tutorial overview of a problem; the next talks may give various solutions to that problem. (See below for more suggestions on the structure)
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As the initiator of the special session, the organizer has the final responsibility for completing the session material and ensuring speaker participation in the event. The DAC engineering program chairs provide assistance as needed.
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The chair of the special session and the organizer can be different. The session chair will have to be present at the session, while organizer participation is not mandatory.
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No organization may be associated with both the session chair and speaker roles. That is, the designated session chair must be affiliated with a different organization than all the speakers. It is possible, but not preferable, for an individual to be both an organizer and a speaker in the session. A person cannot be a contributor to more than one presentation per special session. A complete list of contributors per presentation must be given at the time of special session submission. Adding contributors after acceptance of the special session is not allowed. It must be clearly denoted whether the material (in identical or modified version) has been submitted to any other event before.
Submission Selections
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Please select up to two of the following Topic Areas:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Security
Design
Systems
Electronic Design Automation
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Please select up to three of the following Keywords:
AI and Machine Learning
Formal/Static Methods
Analog & Mixed-signal Design
Low Power
Architecture & System Design
Logic & High-level Synthesis
Chiplets, Interconnects and 3D Integration
Manufacturing and Process
Circuits and Technology
Physical Design
Cloud Computing, Compute/Storage Infrastructure
Quantum Computing
Design Technology Co-optimization
Safety & Reliability
Embedded Systems and IoT
Security & Privacy
Emerging Technologies
Test and Design for Test (DFT)
FPGA Systems
Verification & Validation
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If a submission will be relevant to a specific industry or industries, one or more of the following industries may be selected:
Aerospace and Defense
Industrial
Automotive
Wireless Communications
Consumer
Wired Communications
Data Center
Review Process & Selection
Each submission will be evaluated by the organizing committee, who may refine the proposals and the slate of speakers to better fit the conference program. The committee will strive as much as possible to involve the organizers of promising Special Session submissions in finalizing them for inclusion in the program. Organizers of accepted Special Sessions will be acknowledged in the DAC program (online and in print) and in the DAC proceedings.
