Dr. Cong’s research interests include computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems, design and synthesis of system-on-a-chip, programmable systems, novel computer architectures, nano-systems, and highly scalable algorithms.  He has published over 250 research papers and led over 30 research projects supported by DARPA, NSF, SRC, and a number of industrial sponsors in these areas. He served on the technical program committees and executive committees of many conferences, such as ASPDAC, DAC, FPGA, ICCAD, ISCAS, ISPD, and ISLEPD, and several editorial boards, including the ACM Trans. on Design Automation of Electronic Systems and the IEEE Trans. on VLSI Systems.  Dr. Cong served on the ACM SIGDA Advisory Board in 1993-99, the Board of Governors of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society 2000-04, and been a guest professor at Peking University since 2000.

Dr. Cong received a number of awards and recognitions, include the Best Graduate Award from Peking University in 1985, and the Ross J. Martin Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, the NSF Young Investigator Award in 1993, the Northrop Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award from UCLA in 1993, the ACM/SIGDA Meritorious Service Award in 1998, and the SRC Technical Excellence Award in 2000. He also received three best paper awards—including the 1995 IEEE Trans. on CAD Best Paper Award, the 2005 International Symposium on Physical Design Best Paper Award, and the 2005 ACM Transaction on Design Automation of Electronic Systems Best Paper Award.  He was elected to an IEEE Fellow in 2000.

Dr. Cong has served on the Technical Advisory Board of a number of EDA and silicon IP companies, including Atrenta, eASIC, Get2Chip, Magma Design Automation, and Ultima Interconnect Technologies. He was the founder and president of Aplus Design Technologies, Inc., until it was acquired by Magma Design Automation in 2003. Currently, he serves as the Chief Technology Advisor of Magma and AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc.

Dr. Cong has graduated 22 PhD students.  A number of them are now faculty members in major research universities, including Georgia Tech., Purdue, SUNY Binghamton, UCLA, UIUC, and UT Austin. Others are taking key R&D or management positions in major EDA/computer/semiconductor companies, such as Broadcom, Cadence, IBM, Intel, Magma, and Synopsys, or being founding members of high-tech startups, such as Aplus and AutoESL Design Technologies.