The ASME Design Automation Conference and Committee (DAC) were initiated more than 40 years ago by a group of engineering visionaries to mark the dawn of the computer era in engineering design. Along the way, a strong and diverse community of academic, industrial, and government researchers have made the DAC community what it is today: a vibrant and energetic research community and a place to share the thoughts and ideas that fuel a common passion for engineering design automation (DA). To celebrate the legacy of the DAC and to spark common visions of the DAC’s future, the Design Automation Committee organized a 40th anniversary symposium at the 2014 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC). A capacity crowd of hundreds of DA researchers attended the program, which was organized into three segments. First, Kenneth Ragsdell, one of the founding members of the DAC, spoke of the founding of the conference and committee. He was followed by Panos Papalambros and Farrokh Mistree, who described the impact of 40 years of DA research and education along with some thoughts on the future of the DAC. The program ended with a series of six lightning talks from early career members of the DAC community offering their vision of emerging research opportunities in DA.