Kurt Antreich †

Prof. Dr.-Ing.

Former professor of electronic design automation
TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology

December 7, 1934 - July 30, 2022

Interview with TUM Emeritus of Excellence Kurt Antreich

"I was one of the youngest and at the same time the boss"

As a child TUM Alumni Kurt Antreich had to flee from his Bohemian homelands. That he was able to gain his university-entrance diploma (Abitur) was not a matter of course. Later he conducted internationally renowned research on the field of Information Technology at TUM. [read more]

CV

Kurt Antreich worked on the creation and development of the new chair for electronic design automation (EDA), established 1975, on the basis of extensive third-party fundraising. He led this new chair to become an internationally recognized research center, in which at times more than 20 scientists were employed. Kurt Antreich focused his research on the synthesis and testing of logic modules, the automation of analog circuit design and layout synthesis. The automation of electronic design development is a substantial scientific challenge and of exceptional economic importance worldwide. The algorithms he and his collaborators developed for automated electronic design can be found not only in the design machinery of well-known computer-aided design (CAD) suppliers, but also in the machinery used by large semi-conductor manufacturers. Together with his former collaborators, he established an enduringly successful company from the fruits of his research. Along with his proximity to hands-on work, which Kurt Antreich values highly, his research is exceptional for its uncompromising scholarly depth – which frequently allowed him to prevail over competing research groups. For many decades, and despite particularly strong international competition, Kurt Antreich has been instrumental in defining the technical and academic development of his field from the very beginning and has left a lasting impression on the area of electronic design automation.

Short biography

1954 – 1959	Studies in communications engineering, TUM 1975-2003
1959 – 1975	Development engineer, laboratory director, department head, director of AEG-Telefunken, Backnang
1966	Doctorate in communications engineering, TH Karlsruhe
1973	Appointed to the University of the German Federal Armed Forces, Munich
1975	Appointed to the University of Saarland, Saarbrücken
1989	Appointed to the University of Paderborn in connection with the directorship of the Institute for System Design Technology of the Society for Mathematics and Data Processing, St. Augustin
1975 – 2003	Professor of electronic design automation, TUM

Memberships and honors

Member and director of the department committee “Linear and Non-Linear Networks” of the Information Technology Society (ITG) in the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE) (1965-1976)

Member of the organization and program committee “1976 IEEE International Symposium on Circuit and Systems” (ISCAS), Munich

Member of the Board of Directors of the ITG in the VDE (1978-1982)

Director of the department committee “Computer-Aided Design” of the ITG in the VDE (1985-1989)

Member of the Board of Supervisors of the company ANT Communications Engineering GmbH, Backnang (from 1995 Bosch Telecom)

Member of the programming committee as well as the Organizational Committee and European Representative of the IEEE Conference on Computer-Aided Design (1992, 1993/1994, 1995)

Acceptance of his publication in the book “20 Years of Excellence in Computer-Aided Design”, published by the International Conference on CAD (2003)

Member of the programming committee of the European Design Automation Conference (1990-1995) and topic chair of the Conference on Design Automation and Test in Europe (2001, 2002)

Member of the scientific class of the “Sudetendeutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste e. V.” (since 2008)

Awards

Prize from the Information Technology Society (ITG) in the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologie (VDE) (1976)
Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) (1994)
IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Golden Jubilee Medal (1999)
German Federal Cross of Merit (2000)
Lifetime Achievement Award 2003 from the European Design and Automation Association (EDAA) (2003)
EDA-Medal from the edacentrum e. V. (2003)
Karl-Küpfmüller-Prize from the ITG in the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologie (VDE) (2004)
Ritter-von-Gerstner-Medal from the “Sudetendeutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste e. V.” (2008)

You can download "Explanations of honors and awards" here [PDF 215 KB]