Training the next generation of engineers for the future of chip design.
Vulkos is a browser-based platform where learning to design chips and actually doing it are one and the same. Design, simulation and verification run straight inside hands-on courses, on the open-source toolchain the industry is standardising on, and the whole workspace is AI-native, because the future of chip design will be too.
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Why we are doing this
Semiconductor education today is like a botched driving test. You are either learning to drive in a Ferrari, or just doing the theory.
A skills shortage
The industry needs more engineers than it can hire.
Employers hiring
Roles open for engineers who can already design.
Semiconductor education
Strong fundamentals, no access to silicon.
Silicon-proven EDA
Real silicon, gated by licences, NDAs and cost.
None of those four connect without something in the middle. That is the piece we are building.
Practical training, powered by AI
We exist to give the next generation of engineers real, hands-on skill, not theory. So we built the design work and the learning into a single surface.
AI-native by design
The assistant is built into the whole flow. It writes testbenches and configs, explains and fixes errors in place, and turns a photo of a circuit into a working schematic. We prepare engineers for a field AI is reshaping by teaching them inside one.
Learning and building, one loop
Design, simulation and verification run directly inside the lessons, on the same open-source toolchain the industry ships with. Every design you make feeds what you learn next, and every lesson lands you back in the workspace.
Complementary to your workflow
Vulkos fits alongside how you already work and learn, whether that is a university course, a training programme or your team’s own tooling. It builds on what is already there rather than asking you to replace it.
Where the platform meets the real world
The platform is the tool. This is what we do with it: four ways we work with universities, educators and employers to turn people with no silicon experience into engineers who can design, verify and ship a chip.
Workshops and tapeouts
We take students and aspiring engineers with no prior experience, teach them design fundamentals from the ground up, then put those fundamentals to work. A cohort designs a real block of silicon, and the chip comes back mounted on a board, ready to test. It is the shortest route we know from never having written Verilog to holding your own chip.
Technology partners of Chipathon 2026, Gdansk.
Talk to us about a workshopCurriculum and labs inside courses
Rather than asking a department to rebuild a syllabus, we bring existing modules to life with interactive labs, in-lecture demonstrations and hands-on exercises that sit inside the course you already run. Educators keep their material and their teaching order, and students get somewhere to actually build it.
Talk to us about your coursePre-onboarding for engineers
New engineers arrive capable but not yet productive, and that gap is expensive. We close it before and during onboarding with structured teaching, bespoke labs built around your flow, and demonstrable capability. Nothing to install, no licences to buy, and engineers contributing in weeks rather than quarters.
Talk to us about your teamProof of skill that employers trust
A transcript says someone attended. We want it to show what they can do. Vulkos certifications are built with industry and academia together, so the standard reflects what employers actually hire for, and every claim is backed by verifiable evidence of designs built, verified and taped out on the platform.
Working with the SHaRC team at the University of Sheffield.
Talk to us about certificationWho is building it
Three founders from electrical engineering, business and social policy, each with Innovation written into our degrees. That is the thread that holds us together, and the conviction behind it: getting into the semiconductor industry should not feel impossible.
Max Eland
Co-founder, CTO
Leads the technical build: the browser toolchain, the LibreLane flow, and the engineering behind tape-out in a tab.
MEng Electrical & Electronic Engineering with Innovation
Tom Atkins
Co-founder, CEO
Sets direction and is the company’s public voice, connecting Vulkos with industry, universities and the wider ecosystem.
MSci Social Policy with Innovation
Matt Groves
Co-founder, COO
Owns branding, outreach and sales: how Vulkos shows up, who hears about it, and how partnerships get built.
MSci Business & Management with Innovation
Vulkos began as our master’s research project at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. We built it in the margins, between lectures and deadlines, then spun it out as a company.
How we got here
Sep 2025
The founding team came together at the University of Bristol around a master’s research piece on the future of chip design and the global skills shortage. We talked with professors, industry experts and aspiring engineers facing the problem first-hand, all circling one thing: chip design is gatekept, and open-source EDA changes that.
Early 2026
We took the problem beyond academia. In three months we won the New Enterprise Competition and the Runway Awards, and reached the finals of several more, from the Hult Prize to the AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards.
2026
NVIDIA’s Inception programme gave us the cloud compute and AI credits to build with, and SETsquared Bristol brought mentorship and a base to grow from. Together they took us past £36,000 in cash and credits raised.
Jul 2026
The browser platform went live: a full environment to learn and build chip design, free to start.
Now
The founding team has graduated and is full-time on Vulkos, building for the next generation of chip engineers.
Since launch in July 2026.
There is a lot to build. Come and be part of it.
Create a free account to start learning, or get in touch if you would like to partner with us on curriculum or talent.