Tim 'mithro' Ansell

Google Summer of Code — eight programs across two organizations

Mentoring-organization lead & mentor · 2007 - 2019

Led Thousand Parsec as a GSoC mentoring organization (2007-2008: twelve funded students — four in 2007, eight in 2008 — with Mentor Summits both years) and TimVideos.us (2013, 2014, 2016-2019), which by 2018 ran as an umbrella organization for recording and streaming projects. The 2017 TimVideos project ideas seeded FuPy, the MicroPython-on-FPGA effort.

TP accepted (2007) · TP results · TimVideos GSoC 2016

SKY130 & GF180MCU PDKs

Creator, Manager & Project Lead · 2018 - 2024

Worked with SkyWater Technology Foundry and GlobalFoundries to release open source PDKs for their 130nm and 180nm process technologies with support for open source EDA tooling such as OpenROAD, KLayout, Magic, OpenRAM, Xschem and many others.

SKY130 · GF180MCU

Open MPW program

Creator, Manager & Project Lead · 2018 - 2024

Developed partnership with multiple entities including foundries such as SkyWater & GlobalFoundries, startups such as Efabless, and academic groups to enable >1,000 manufacturable tape outs in under 3 years with >40% first time designers. Secured $15m USD in funding from the DoD to enable expansion to SKY90FD technology.

Open MPW program · GlobalFoundries announcement

NIST Nanotechnology Development Platform

Project Oversight · 2019 - 2024

Worked with public policy & legal at Google to create a partnership with NIST to utilize the SKY130 open source PDKs to create a Nanotechnology Development Platform announced by Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce. More info, including other programs, at bit.ly/goog-nist.

Announcement · bit.ly/goog-nist

Organized >$6.5m USD in academic grants

Lead Organizer · 2020 - 2023

Worked with Google's University Relations team and academic collaborators to enable $6.8m USD in grants to 21 academic institutes from around the globe. Met regularly with multiple groups to help direct research and provide feedback, including the exciting results at bit.ly/goog-analog.

bit.ly/goog-analog

Presented >100 technical presentations

Author · (~10 per year) 2012 - 2022

Presented at multiple high profile community conferences including >1,000 people audiences (35C3 & 33C3, CCCamp19 & CCCamp15, COSCUP, Linux.conf.au, Hack-A-Day Supercon), top level academic events (ICCAD, DAC, CICC, ESSCIRC, FCCM, SPIE, SSCD), and government entities (NIST, NSF, T&M, US Navy, Japan's METI, DARPA ERI Summit).

All talks

Launched 7 successful hardware crowdfunding campaigns

Project Manager · 2015 - 2021

Opsis (2015), Tomu (2018), NeTV2 (2018), Fomu (2019), Somu (2019), QuickFeather (2020), Qomu (2021).

Opsis · Tomu · NeTV2 · Fomu · Somu · QuickFeather · Qomu

PyCon AU Conference

Lead Organizer · 2010 - 2018

Created the PyCon AU conference and helped it grow to >500 people.

wafer.space · 2025 - Present

Founder & CEO · Singapore

Arc PBC / Arc Labs · 2024 - Oct 2025

SVP of Hardware (Arc PBC); Chief Technology Officer (Arc Labs) · New Jersey, USA

Google · 2018 - 2024

Lead for open silicon efforts; Google Board Member, OpenPOWER Foundation · Sunnyvale, USA

Google · 2014 - 2018

Chrome - Animation, Input & Scheduling · Sydney, Australia

Google · 2011 - 2014

Site Reliability Engineer / Google Maps · Sydney, Australia

Google · 2008 - 2011

Technical Solutions Engineer / Mobile & Android · Sydney, Australia

Australia Semiconductor Technology Company · 2006 - 2007

Hardware Simulator Developer · Adelaide, Australia

Tim has been industry focused. Select academic contributions are included.

• Presented at multiple top tier academic conferences such as ICCAD, DAC, CICC, ESSCIRC, FCCM, SPIE, SSCD and many more.
• Organized >$6.5m USD in academic grants across 21 institutes.

Selected papers

University of Adelaide

2001 - 2006

• Bachelor of Engineering (Information Technology & Telecommunications) with Honors
• Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy & Cognitive Science) with Honors