Cadence Design Systems

Cadence plays an essential role in the creation of virtually every integrated circuit and electronics system being designed today. Cadence Design Systems

Our Scholarships

Placement Location

Bracknell or Cambridge

Type of Placements Offered

• 12-month placements only

Restrictions/Notes

(1) Requires 12-month placement for 2024/25; (2) Students must be in the penultimate year of their degree; (3) No first year students

2023/24 Scholarships

At least one new scholarship

Who we are and what we do

Through its industry leading electronic design tools and services, Cadence plays an essential role in the creation of virtually every integrated circuit and electronics system being designed today. Customers our software, hardware, IP, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, with support offices, design centres, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. Our European HQ is in Bracknell UK.


What you could be doing during your work placement

As an intern, you will get direct experience in using Cadence’s leading edge IC design tools on real-life design problems. Your focus will be on solving technical design and verification problems in a broad range of technical areas – analogue, digital, verification, IC and PCB. You will often be in direct communication with our customers. You can greatly expand your knowledge on the technical aspect of design automation, use Cadence’s cutting edge tools and attend excellent technical training courses. You will be assigned to a dedicated project for ~30% of your time an intern; our intern Kary developed a mixed signal VerilogAMS model and testbench to simulate a 12bit Pipeline ADC with digital error correction.

Through interaction with customers, with colleagues, through seminars and projects, you will gain insight in the latest ideas and challenges of the semiconductor industry. This is a great opportunity to become a real Cadence tool expert and to get familiar with the technologies and methodologies behind them. In this internship there are few limits; it’s up to you to decide how much you want to deepen your knowledge and push for personal excellence.

Find out more about working for Cadence


Meet one of our Scholars

Name: Katerina

Sponsor: Cadence Design Systems

University: University of Surrey

Degree Course: MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering

What appeals to me about Electronics?

Throughout school, I always enjoyed Maths, Physics and Computer Science lessons, but I had a greater interest applying the knowledge in real life. Electronics is an extremely wide field that affects everyday life in countless ways. I find it fascinating how many applications it has and where it can be found. Studying electronics opens numerous doors in various aspects of the electronics industry in cutting edge fields. I loved the idea of working on cutting edge devices and systems, to desire to design, build and work on the future, and be a part of the industry which is defining the modern world.

Why I chose Cadence?

I chose Cadence because it combines both software and hardware, which is something I am really interested in. I was working on projects that do automated tests to analyze and verify the results, to debug any issue and to develop the operation of the product.

Cadence gave me the opportunity to be a part of a well-organized team, in a team with high-skilled engineers, and to work on projects that will improve and develop products. Through my placement, I have gained a deeper understanding of design automation by using Cadence’s latest edge tools. During the placement, I had the chance to apply my programming skills in different projects and to learn more in depth about different programming languages.

Cadence offered me the chance to communicate directly with customers and by interacting with them, I have improved my transferable skills. Moreover, I was part of a multicultural working environment as my team was composed with people who live and work in other regions.

My placement

I am primarily responsible for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) customer support, ensuring that customer inquiries are directed to the appropriate team and addressed efficiently and effectively.

During my placement, I have been treated as a proper Application Engineer rather than an intern. Cadence gives you the opportunity to choose which project you want to be assigned, dependent on your interests.

In the beginning of my placement, I didn’t have enough experience in most of the Cadence tools, and therefore I had to undergo a training program. This was challenging but with the support and encouragement of my colleagues, I was able to work with many of the Cadence tools.

To develop the projects that I was assigned to, I used Verilog, which is hardware description language to model electronic systems, and Tensilica Instruction Extension (TIE) language to customize Tensilica’s Xtensa processor core architecture. My programming skills were significantly improved and time management, problem solving and communication skills as well.

My interests

Outside of work and university, I enjoy travelling, playing tennis and piano. I have joined some university societies since I came to university, and I managed to become the President of the Hellenic society and the communications officer of the tennis society!

Meet one of our Engineers

Name: Saloni

Job Title: Senior Principal Application Engineer

Deciding on a career path

It was at the age of fifteen years that I needed to decide my career path and work towards it. As a student, I was academically strong and the concepts of new things in subjects like Physics and Chemistry always intrigued me. Therefore, based on my interests and abilities, I wanted to choose a profession which was intellectually and technically challenging. So, when it was time, I chose to study Electronics and Communication Engineering with the belief that unlike some others, this field allowed enough potential to see your innovations getting realised into physical products that make the world a more comfortable, sophisticated and technologically advanced place to live.

My first job

I started my career with Freescale Semiconductors, India who are a big player as chip makers in Network and Automobile industry. It was very fascinating to see how they designed chips to incorporate various requests – some to add cool features while some to ensure better safety of passengers – from customers like BMW and Mercedes. I was a part of Flows and Methodology group, which worked across all business units, thereby allowing us to be a part of innovations in diverse areas. With the immense exposure to different EDA tools and flows I gathered in this role, moving to a strong EDA company like Cadence was an imperative decision.

Working for Cadence

I have been with Cadence for over 11 years now and during this time, I have had many opportunities to develop my skills and grow as a professional. As an Application Engineer, I enable our customers to adopt Cadence’s cutting-edge solutions and realize their innovations that are transforming the way we live and experience life. I find it very rewarding to be able to solve problems of various complexities to help my peers and customers succeed – this motivates me to learn more. I also believe that our culture of embracing diversity and inclusion allowing everyone to thrive makes Cadence a great place to work.

Outside of work

I am fond of cooking (Indian curries) and dancing.