People

Leadership

Director: Professor Massoud Pedram

  • Charles Lee Powell Chair in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  • Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley (1991)  
  • USC Viterbi School of Engineering Senior Research Award, 2017
  • IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Charles A. Desoer Technical Achievement Award, 2015
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 1996
  • Multiple best conference and journal paper awards, IEEE Fellow, 2000
  • Research interests:
    • Energy-efficient computing – Computer-aided design, Low power design, Embedded systems
    • Hardware design – Approximate hardware, DNN accelerators, Homomorphic encryption
    • Superconductor Electronics – RTL/logic synthesis, Place&Route, Timing and margin analysis

Co-director: Professor Joshua Yang

  • Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Ph.D. University of Wisconsin – Madison (2007)  
  • Founder Chair of IEEE Neuromorphics Technical Committee
  • Powell Faculty Research Award, 2021
  • Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers in the field of Cross-Field, 2020
  • UMass Chancellor’s Medal (highest honor of UMass), 2019
  • Best paper in Advanced Materials Technologies, Wiley, 2019
  • UMass Amherst Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, 2019
  • NVMTS2019 Best poster award, IEEE, 2019
  • Winner of UMass Spotlight Scholar, 2017
  • Research interests:
    • Neuromorphic / Synaptic computing using memristive devices with diffusion dynamics to implement neuroscience principles
    • Hardware accelerators to efficiently implement Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning using analog resistive switching devices
    • High performance Non-volatile memories using emerging materials and devices

Senior Research Scientist: Mehdi Kamal, Ph.D.

  • Ph.D. University of Tehran (2013) 
  • IEEE Senior Member 
  • Best paper awards in ISQED and ICCD conferences 
  • Research interests: 
    • Low Power Design 
    • Approximate Computing  
    • Neuromorphic Computing  
    • HW/SW Co-design 
    • Reliability in nanometer designs  

Technology Advisors

Professor Richard Leahy

Professor Toni Levi

Professor Stephen P. Crago

Participating USC Faculty

  • Devices and Circuits: Chongwu Zhou, Rehan Kapadia, Mercedeh Khajavikhan, Mike Chen, Joshua Yang, Han Wang
  • Machine Learning and Graph Analytics: Keith Chugg, Eun Sok Kim, Leana Golubchik, Viktor Prasanna, Xuehai Qian, Murali Annavaram, Peter Beerel
  • Quantum Computing: Daniel Lidar, Todd Brun, Itay Hen, Federico Spedalieri
  • Non VonNeumann Computing: Joshua Yang, Ajey Jacob, Wei Wu, Chia Wei Wade Hsu, John Wroclawski
  • Secure and Private Computing: Pierluigi Nuzzo, Massoud Pedram, Matthew French, Andrew Schmidt