A Premier

Train to-Recruit
Company
Global Opportunities in the Semiconductor Space, Driven
by the RISC-V Revolution
1.1 Semiconductors - A Rapidly Expanding Industry 01
1.2 The RISC-V Revolution 01
1.3 Map 02
1.4 Global Opportunities 03
1.5 An Opportunity for Pakistan's Talent 03
Lamprò Mèllon
2.1 LM’s Train-to-Recruit Program 05
2.1A Recruitment and Training 06
2.1B Benefits to Students of the LM program 07
2.2 Job Opportunities in China, South Korea and Pakistan 07

How to Apply
3.1 Recruiting Procedure 09
3.2 Eligibility Criteria 09
3.3 How to Apply 09
3.4 Learn More About Us 09

Lamprò Mèllon’s First Cohort of October 2019

4.1 Overview of our First Cohort 11

Collaborators & Partners

5.1 Govt. of Punjab & Punjab Higher Education Commission 14
5.2 SiFive USA 15
5.3 RISC-V Foundation 16
5.4 SiFive China 17

Lamprò Mèllon’s Team

SEMICONDUCTORS - A RAPIDLY EXPANDING INDUSTRY
Semiconductors form the very cornerstone of the technology world, having
rapidly permeated into every aspect of human life. The semiconductor industry
today is worth almost 500 Billion US dollars, having more than doubled in size
over the past ten years. Going forward, semiconductors promise to shape our
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everyday life at an even greater rate by penetrating further into an ever expanding
list of applications such as AI, AR/VR, IoT, industrial automation, health and
automotive.

THE RISC-V REVOLUTION

The accelerated rate at which cloud, edge computing, industrial automation and
IoT have evolved has necessitated a transition from a small number of general
purpose chips to a wide range of custom chips. RISC-V has been at the forefront of
this revolution by introducing open source to hardware. It has enabled companies,
including small and medium enterprises, to innovate by having access to
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affordable chips with a much quicker turnaround time.

In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest from multiple avenues in
the RISC-V ISA. Large companies like Nvidia and Western Digital have begun to
adopt RISC-V architecture in developing their processors and SoC, replacing
proprietary designs. Today, SiFive, a leading commercial core company, has
quickly racked up more than 100 design customers worldwide, and is serving 6 of
the top 10 semiconductor companies in the world. The company is backed by
investments from Intel Capital, Western Digital, Qualcomm Ventures, Spark
Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Huami, among others.

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 Microelectronics Industry Hubs in the World

Cambridge
England

Seol
Nice South Korea
France

San Jose
USA Stuttgart Chengdu Shanghai

MAP
Germany

Taiwan

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Silicon Wadi
Austin Texas
USA

Singapore
GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES
China is one of the biggest semiconductor markets globally with a market size of
over 125 Billion USD. However only 16% of this comes from indigenous production
and design. Driven by information security concerns and the threat of ‘backdoors’,
China over the last few years has tried to reduce its dependency on foreign chips.

As part of the “China 2025” initiative, the country aims to locally develop 70% of
the semiconductor material it consumes by 2025 and will invest USD 118 billion
over the next 4-5 years. Further reinforced by the ongoing trade war with the US,
the Chinese government and companies have quickly embraced the open source
quality of RISC-V, having already established two RISC-V industry alliances
comprising of more than 185 companies, including the likes of Alibaba and
Huawei, amongst others.
South Korea is another important player in the semiconductor industry, home to
global giants Samsung and SK Hynix, and a leader in the memory chips segment.
The government of South Korea, as part of its Semiconductor vision 2030, will also
be investing USD 4.3 billion over then next 4-5 years in the non-memory, system
chips segment and in particular the AI segment.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PAKISTAN'S TALENT

Over the next 4-5 years, 500K jobs will be created in the semiconductor industry in
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China and South Korea alone. However, there is a gap in skilled human resource
availability in these two countries to fulfil these ambitions.
Pakistani talent can serve as the ideal solution for 10-50K of these placement
opportunities, from electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer
science backgrounds.

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LAMPRÓ
MÉLLON
LAMPRÓ MÉLLON
Lampró Méllon has been established to serve as a gateway to these opportunities
in the semiconductor space. Accordingly, LM has established linkages and
partnerships with both local and global key players in the semiconductor space.
We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Punjab Government
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and the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) to train talent for the
industry. We have also signed recruitment and placement agreements with
companies in China and South Korea to place our trainees globally. These
companies include SiFive China, SemiFive, South Korea, and others.

LM is a train to recruit organization, with the vision of tapping into the immense
underutilized talent in Pakistan and matching them to promising careers in the
semiconductor and microelectronics industry globally.

LM TRAIN-TO-RECRUIT PROGRAM
LM offers a 6-9 month rigorous Train-to-Recruit program, collaboratively designed
by leading academia and industry experts, predominantly focusing on SoC
Design, VLSI design, and RISC-V open source architecture.

To ensure seamless integration into the business and work environment of foreign
SoC markets, the training program is supplemented by a well rounded education
in Project Management and business communication to transform trainees into
expert design engineers, equipped with relevant global workplace and
management skills.

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RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING
The training has been prepared under the guidelines of leading industry figures
from SiFive USA and the RISC-V Foundation. We believe the best method to
internalise industry-ready and employment-ready skills and knowledge is to work
on real-life industry projects.

ENGINEERING COURSES
Module 1 COEN 510 - Computer Architecture
ELEN 520 - VLSI Design
Module 2 COEN 530 - RISC-V Architecture Basic
COEN 535 - Chisel Based Design
Module 3 COEN 550 - RISC-V Architecture Advanced
COEN 555 - On Boarding IP

ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSES

Module 1 ENGL 510 - Fundamentals of English Language
Module 2 ENGL 520 - Righting Writing Skills
Module 3 ENGL 530 - Spoken English Skills

MANDARIN (CHINESE LANGUAGE) COURSES

Module 1 MAND 501 - Mandarin I
Module 2 MAND 502 - Mandarin II
Module 3 MAND 503 - Mandarin III

SOFT SKILLS COURSES

Module 1 SFSK 501 - Program Management and Scheduling Skills
Module 2 SFSK 502 - Communication and Interpersonal Skills
Module 3 SFSK 503 - Leadership and Conflict Resolution Skills

On October 1st 2019, Lampró Méllon started its training program by inducting
its first batch of recruits.

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BENEFITS TO STUDENTS OF THE LM PROGRAM
Assured placements* as Design Engineers (and other positions) at Lampró
Méllon’s partner companies in China, South Korea and Pakistan

Entry level annual remuneration package of upto PKR 4.1 million**

Taught by a world class faculty and key industry figures including the visionaries
behind RISC-V.

Exposure to relevant projects dealing with live challenges in the semiconductor

space and beyond.

Guest lectures by Dr. Naveed Sherwani, CEO of SiFive, the co-founders of SiFive
and RISC- V, Yunsup Lee and Krste Asanovic, and other leading industry
figures.

Global management expertise through in-depth training in project

management, communication skills, behavioural skills etc.

Ability to converse in the world’s second most commonly spoken language –

Mandarin

* Placement is contingent upon successful completion of the program.

** For placements in China and South Korea.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Lampró Méllon’s partner companies are recruiting across the entire breadth of the
SoC design cycle.
Here’s a list of some of these opportunities.

RISC-V based SoC Designers

SoC System Designers
Verification Engineers
Physical Design Engineers   
Design-for-Test Engineers
SoC Low Power Designers
SoC Signoff Engineers
Embedded System Designers
IP Creation and Porting Engineers
Firmware Engineers

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HOW TO
APPLY
RECRUITING PROCEDURE
Candidates are required to undergo a recruitment process as recruitment into the
program means recruitment with LM's hiring partners. Candidates are assessed
on a number of dimensions to ensure that LM only selects applicants that can
withstand and thrive in the rigor of the LM program and the subsequent job
placement in China, South Korea, and Pakistan. An offer to join the LM program is
effectively a job offer - candidates and LM sign contracts to this effect.
DETAILS PROCESS

APPLY RECRUITMENT PANEL INDUCTION IN ASSURED

ONLINE EXAMS INTERVIEW LM PROGRAM PLACEMENT

Registration Designed by Getting to know 6-9 months At LM partner

through academia and applicants both rigorous training companies in
official industry experts personal and program China,
website professional front South Korea
and Pakistan

The test has been designed to assess you across a number of disciplines and skills.
We encourage all recent graduates and alumni who graduated up to five years
ago to apply. The test is more about understanding where we can place you, and
what training is required, than about screening applicants.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Candidates with minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering,
Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunication Engineering,
Mechatronics Engineering, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Information
Technology and other related disciplines are eligible to apply.

HOW TO APPLY
Interested candidates can either visit app.lampromellon.com or go to our
website www.lampromellon.com and apply directly by clicking on the ‘Apply
Now’ or ‘Apply Online’ button.

HOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT US

If you want to learn more about our program or have any queries, you can visit our
website www.lampromellon.com or visit our Facebook or Linkedin pages for
updates. Similarly, we are also available through email: info@lampromellon.com
or over the phone: 042 32560183.

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LAMPRÓ MÉLLON
FIRST COHORT
On 1st October 2019 LM welcomed its first batch, a cohort of 24 of the most aspiring
and promising trainees, to a rigorous train-to-recruit program that will transform
them into expert design engineers and culminate with job placements in the
semiconductor and microelectronics design space in China and South Korea, with
options in Pakistan for those who prefer to stay back.

OVERVIEW OF OUR FIRST BATCH

Here is a brief overview of our first batch:

We welcomed students from 5 universities across 4 disciplines and 4 majors.

University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Islamia University Bahawalpur
and National University of Science and Technology Islamabad are among the
universities having highest percentage of graduates inducted to our first batch.
About three-fourth of the trainees of the first cohort are from Electrical and
Computer Engineering backgrounds.

For our second cohort, commencing January 2020, we have expanded the
program to a number of other relevant universities across Pakistan. Additionally,
the January 2020 batch will also focus on trainees with a computer science,
Mechatronics, IT and related backgrounds. You can apply for our January 2020,
and Fall 2020 cohort at www.lampromellon.com

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COLLABORATORS
& PARTNERS
 PHEC
Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) aims to improve the quality of
higher education in Punjab. Instead of relying on the quantity of work, the central
focus of PHEC is on enhancing the quality of education in existing Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs) of Punjab. It is determined to provide an easy,
affordable and equitable access to higher education for the people of Punjab.
Since its inception (January 2015) the PHEC aims to build a prosperous Punjab by
equipping students of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) with adequate facilities
and by incubating a market-oriented and skilled workforce through proposed
skill-development projects. This initiative would pave the path for students to
excel within their respective areas of profession.

The Punjab Government and Lampró Méllon have signed a memorandum of

understanding to provide merit-based scholarships and recruitment for trainees
inducted into the LM training program.

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 China

Founded on August 24th, 2018, SiFive China is

based on the RISC-V open source ecosystem
and is led by a team of RISC-V pioneers and
industry experts to leverage the leading RISC-
V core. SiFive China is a RISC-V IP and SI
Solutions provider.

Worldwide Presence
HQ: Shanghai
6 offices
100+ employees

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LAMPRÓ
MÉLLON
TEAM
SABAHAT RAFIQ
CEO Lampró Méllon
Sabahat Rafiq started her career as a consultant and
coordinator for USAID and Arthur D. Little. She
subsequently joined an international Islamic banking
group and spent the next few years focusing on Sharia
compliant Investment Banking. Upon coming to the US
in 1995, she founded a successful textile-trading house in
Oregon. She later moved to California, and re-focused
her energies on her core expertise in the Finance industry. She was a consultant to
reputable Middle-Eastern financial institutions and Pakistani Islamic banks. Prior
to Lampró Méllon, she served as CEO of United We REACH, an ed-tech non-profit
with the aim to revolutionize the education sector of Pakistan with its proprietary
technology. In addition, she has an avid interest in history, politics and philosophy
and delivers talks about education, South-Asian affairs and history and
philosophical discourse therein at various universities and forums. She also serves
on the President’s Council of United Religions Initiative (URI).

NAVEED SHERWANI
President and CEO SiFive
Dr. Sherwani currently serves as President and CEO of
SiFive, a fabless company which is leading the RISC-V
revolution. He has over 30 years of experience in
entrepreneurship, technical engineering and general
management. Dr. Sherwani started his first company,
when he was only 18 years old. He has founded and co-
founded multiple companies, including PeerNova, a
company focused on technology solutions based on blockchain technology. Prior
to PeerNova, Dr. Sherwani co-founded Open-Silicon, a leading provider of ASIC
solutions. Under his leadership, Open-Silicon designed over 300 ASICs. Prior to
Open-Silicon, as the founder and General Manager of Intel Microelectronics
Services, he pioneered Open methodology for ASICs. He also founded Brite Semi,
a leading ASIC solution provider in China/APAC. He has served on the boards of
various companies, including Touchstone Semiconductor, and Integration
Associates (sold to Silicon Labs). Dr. Sherwani worked at Intel for nearly a decade,
where he co-architected the Intel microprocessor design methodology and
design environment used in several microprocessors and received the prestigious
Intel Achievement Award in 1997. Dr. Sherwani is a noted author having authored
several books and over 100 articles on various aspects of VLSI Physical Design
Automation and ASICs. Dr. Sherwani served as a Professor at Western Michigan
University, where his research focused on ASICs, EDA, Combinatorics, graph
algorithms and parallel computing. He received his Ph.D from the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.

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JAFAR SAFDAR
CTO Lampró Méllon
Jafar Safdar has worked in the semiconductor and
microelectronics space for over 25 years. He has held
various design, application engineering, marketing and
program management positions focusing on SoC
design, implementation and IP at Socionext and
Synopsys. He holds a master’s degree in electrical
engineering from California State University, Northridge.

DR. CUSROW J DUBASH

Chief Academia Officer Lampró Méllon
Dr. C. J. Dubash serves as Chief Academic Officer at
Lampró Méllon. He also served as the Vice Rector
(Intermediate) and Dean of the Faculty of Education at
Forman Christian College (A Chartered University). He
holds a Ph.D. degree from the USA in Educational
Psychology; two M.Ed. degrees from the USA in Science
Education and School Administration respectively; a MSc degree from Karachi in
Microbiology. He has over 35 years of teaching experience and has been training
teachers for over 30 years. He has presented at International Teacher Conferences
at Bangkok, Katmandu, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Athens and
Istanbul. He has fourteen research publications and many articles to his credit. He
is associated with HEC as Resource Person, and is on the Boards of the Punjab
Curriculum and Textbook Board and the Presbyterian Education Board in
Pakistan.

MIR MAAZ
VP Strategic Alliances Lampró Méllon
More than 25 years of IT Strategy and Business
Development, Project Management, CMM Consultancy
and Corporate Management experience allows me to
share with any organization a strong business acumen
p e r t a i n i n g t o S a l e s , M a r ke t i n g , R e l a t i o n s h i p
Management and Strategic Planning. Extensive
experience in Higher Education, Public Sector, Banking and
Telecommunications verticals.

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BILAL ZAFAR
VP ENGINEERING LM
Prior to joining SiFive-China and Lampró Méllon, Dr.
Zafar worked at Qualcomm – a San Diego, USA-based
semiconductor and telecommunications company. At
Qualcomm, he co-led the worldwide Custom & Semi-
Custom Implementation (CSI) team. CSI is a vertically
integrated ASIC design team with expertise in RTL
design, synthesis, place & route, custom circuits and physical layout & verification.
Under his leadership, the team delivered RTL2GDSII views for dozens of complex
IPs, including cache memories, FIFOs, sensors, clock dividers, in four process
technology nodes (28nm, 14nm, 10nm and 7nm), multiple foundries (TSMC, Global
Foundries and Samsung) and over 12 SoC products.
Dr. Zafar completed his MS and Ph.D in Computer Engineering from the
University Of Southern California (USC), USA. He has been active in teaching
throughout his career. From August 2018 through October 2019, he worked as
Associate Professor at the University of Central Punjab. Prior to that, he was
Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Electrical Engineering at USC (2011). Dr.
Zafar has four publications and eight US Patents to his name.

AHSEN OMAR MAJID

Director Business Development & Marketing
Ahsen Majid is a startup specialist with over 10 years of
experience creating and leading small teams to create a
big impact. He specializes in creating data-driven and
context-specific tools and solutions to business
problems. His areas of expertise include Corporate
Strategy, Requirements Analysis, Project Management,
and Data Analysis. He is Director of Business Development and Marketing at
Lampró Méllon, and has previously been the Director Impact Analysis at United
We REACH, Head of the Evidence Based Procurement Reforms Program,
Consultant for the London School of Economics, and Project Manager for an MIT,
Sanford, and LSE led Public-Policy Randomized Control Trial at CERP, conducted
in collaboration with the Government of Punjab. He is an experienced trainer who
has lectured senior executives at the National School of Public Policy (NSPP), the
Management and Professional Development Department (MPDD), and the
Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP).

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SHAHZAD J. CHATTHA
Chief Financial Officer Lampró Méllon
Shahzad J. Chattha serves as Chief Financial Officer at
Lampró Méllon. He has over 20 years of experience in
Financial Planning & Analysis, Budgeting, Treasury,
Banking and Funds Management, Corporate, and
Taxation of large organizations. Previously, he has served
as Chief Financial Officer, Manager Finance, Head of
Accounts and Taxation and Manager Finance and Credit, covering Islamic
Banking (Modaraba), Investment Banking, Brokerage and Money remittance
sectors.

SHAHZAD ALI
Director Software Engineering
Shazad Ali serves as Director Software Engineering at
Lampró Méllon. He holds a Masters Degree in Computer
Science and has vast experience of enterprise software
solutions. Previously he has worked as Director Software
Engineering at United We REACH, an ed-tech NGO
where he led the development of cutting edge technological solution for
delivering and monitoring lessons in classrooms.

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