At the start of my 2nd year studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Southampton, were tasked with designing our own silicon microchips! This was a group project, done in groups of around six people. The project, known internally as “D2” involved us designing digital circuits to meet a given specification, then creating a layout for these circuits on a silicon microchip, which would be fabricated by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) during the academic year. If all went to plan, they would be delivered in time for us to test our chips after the Easter holiday.