Congratulations to Victor Sira, MASc student in Electrical Engineering and supervised by Dr. Sudip Shekhar, who received the ECE and UBC 3MT’s People’s Choice Award for the best presentation on “Robust Clock Generation for Microchips”. Learn more about Victor’s research, participation in 3MT, and advice for future contenders!
Can you explain your research topic/thesis?
My research work is in Analog CMOS circuit design. Specifically, I am working on Multi-Path Ring Oscillators (MPRO) which are a fancy type of ring oscillator used to break the typical frequency and number of stages trade-off that exists in simple Ring Oscillators. These circuits find applications in systems that require lots of phases, high operating frequencies and compact oscillator area, for example Time-Interleaving Data Converters and Phase Locked Loops.
What’s something people wouldn’t expect about your research?
Multi-Path Ring Oscillators have an annoying tendency to oscillate at undesired frequencies and/or phase sequences based on the circuit’s initial conditions. My work is mostly focused on simplifying the complex theory that surrounds this problem so that engineers can use these circuits without worrying about initial conditions.
Based on your experience in 3MT, what advice would you give students looking to participate in this competition?
The 3MT is about presenting your research to a general audience but for some topics in ECE a general audience may have zero background knowledge related to your work. I think it’s useful to spend some time providing a simple context for your research so that everyone in the audience is on the same page.
What did you learn from your experience of participating in 3MT? What was your favourite part of this competition?
I learned a lot during the 3MT and would recommend it for all grad students. Most importantly, I learned how to communicate my research to a lay person in a much better and more efficient way than before the competition. My favourite part was listening to all of the diverse and exciting research going on at UBC.
Where do you see yourself once your program is over/ what are you hoping to work on in the future?
After completing my program I’m planning to work in industry as an Analog IC designer. The future is uncertain but I’m excited for new developments in transistors and what that future will bring for Analog design.