Edmund “Ed” K. Cheng, BSE ’72,received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio University in 1972. He also holds a master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Cheng began group for several years before venturing out on his own. In 1981, he helped found Silicon Compliers in San Jose, Calif. The company went on to merge with Silicon Design Labs in 1987 before being acquired in 1990 by Mentor Graphics Corporation, where Cheng served as director of strategic programs.
In 1994, Cheng organized the start-up company Anagram in order to develop a circuit simulator with revolutionary capacity, speed, accuracy, and ease-of-use. With Cheng as president and CEO, the company released its pioneering ADM product in 1995 and saw its business increase to more than $20 million annually a year later.
In 1998, Cheng joined Synopsys as vice president of research and development in the epic technology group business unit and was named vice president of marketing for the newly formed silicon engineering business group in 2004.
Currently, Cheng serves as president and CEO of Gradient Design Automation, a position he assumed in 2006. Gradient is a leader in thermal analysis technologies for integrated circuits, which Ed helped to introduce into the industry.