ITMO University’s School of Physics and Engineering joined the PathWave Design program by Keysight Technologies, an international company engaged in the development of automated design systems for high-frequency, microwave, and high-speed digital devices. As part of the partnership, ITMO will gain access to online seminars, workshops, and software.

ITMO University’s School of Physics and Engineering

Keysight Technologies is engaged in the development of a wide variety of equipment for radio measurement, including vector network analyzers, oscillographs, and signal generators, as well as technologies for system and electromagnetic modeling of devices. In Russia alone software by this company is used by 5,000 companies working in the fields of electronics, airspace, and telecommunication. Moreover, Keysight provides universities from all over the world with access to its PathWave Design tool package for scientific research and training of students.

According to Nikita Olekhno, a PhD student and an engineer at the School of Physics and Engineering, researchers from ITMO University have been using the company’s equipment for a while now, but the partnership will allow them to reach new heights in research.

“ITMO University plans to scale up its ecosystem by focusing not only on education but also on research and technological projects with commercial companies. To conduct research at a global level, we need high-quality equipment and software. We’ve been working with Keysight’s equipment for many years and started to use software too, when we saw the great results in design achieved by our colleagues from New York University. In their article, they’ve covered a task related to topological states in electric chains – one of our fields of research – and provided computational modeling using Advanced Design System. We decided to try this tool as well and started with a trial version – the results fitted the experimental data perfectly. We liked it and started to develop our cooperation,” says Nikita Olekhno.

Now lecturers, students, and researchers from ITMO University will be able to use not only Advanced Design System but also nine other software modules for studying and non-commercial research in the field of design of electronic devices. The new software will make it possible to study electromagnetic compatibility of devices, conduct system or SPICE-modeling of electric chains, as well as design antennas and communication systems.

Overall, the company will provide 520 server licenses: 52 for each of the 10 modules. Moreover, ITMO students will be able to get a trial version of the license for their personal computers by leaving a request on the official website of Keysight using their corporate university email addresses.

Nikita Olekhno emphasizes that thanks to this partnership, students will not only be able to learn how to use new software that is actively applied in the industry, but also enhance their skills and possibly get employed at Keysight.

Alexander Shovgenin, head of research and education programs at Keysight Technologies, says that the company wanted to cooperate with universities for a long time: the company knows what competencies are in-demand among their industrial partners and this way it can help students improve these skills during their studies so that by the time they graduate, they would be able to successfully work in production. The company is a partner to more than 30 universities and plans to further develop in this direction. Those at Keysight Technologies also hope that thanks to access to their software and equipment, universities will be able to create new educational programs and methodological materials.

“When it comes to software for designing electronic devices, it only seems that working on your own is best. In reality, it’s more profitable when a tool is used by many developers. That way they can form an environment that would grow and provide new commissions and ideas. So we hope that ITMO University will play its role in the creation of a Russian community of developers using our technologies,” says Alexander Shovgenin.

As part of the partnership, Keysight and ITMO University will conduct workshops and seminars, where representatives of the company will talk about their products and give technical advice on their application in electronics design and development.

Alena Mamaeva

Journalist

Kseniia Tereshchenko

Translator