Doing a PhD is a challenge

Source: UT news 28 june 2001.

Professor Bram Nauta is the chair holder of Integrated Circuits Design (IC-D) in Electrical Engineering. Questioned why an MSc student would chose to do a PhD study in his group, professor Nauta smiles proudly: "Because we are a good and strong group! We have a friendly atmosphere and we are multi-national with many external contacts. We develop clever IC design techniques to realise more portable and faster communication systems at a low cost. Challenges in high-frequency analog and mixed-signal circuit design are addressed in close co-operation with the industry, in order to find fundamental solutions for practical problems. We do innovative research for a number of large international corporations like Philips, Nokia and Ericsson. During his study the student participates in conferences, meets people and trains to be competitive. Doing a PhD is definitely a challenge but it gives tremendous satisfaction."

Almost all members of the permanent staff have experience in the industry and professor Nauta advises all his students to pursue a career in industry after getting a PhD degree.

He says: "In IC-D most permanent members have had the experience of working in a company before coming here. From an individual point of view this means a lot of experience, insight and clarity. From a collective point of view this undoubtedly brings with it a close relationship with the industry. Taking advantage of this, our PhD students have technical expertise, training and support from the industry as well."

Talking about the job opportunities IC-D PhD students have, professor Nauta says: "They have the freedom to choose whatever they want to do after finishing, no matter if the project was supported by a company. It is a complicated thing depending on personality and skills but we guide them towards their career and advise them each step of the way. Nobody is left out."