Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Computer Engineering and Systems Group

Vickie Winston

CESG Seminar: Azalia Mirhoseini

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Friday, December 1, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Stanford University

Title: “Pushing the Limits of Scaling Laws in the Age of Large Language Models“

Abstract 
The recent success of large language models has been characterized by scaling laws – the power law relationship between performance and training dataset size, model parameter size, and training compute. In this talk, we will discuss ways to push the scaling laws even further by innovating across data, models, software and hardware. This includes reinforcement learning from human and AI feedback to improve learning efficiency, sparse and dynamic mixture-of-experts neural architectures for better performance, an automated framework for co-designing custom AI accelerators, and a deep RL method for chip floorplanning used in multiple generations of Google AI’s accelerator chips (TPU). Through these cutting-edge examples, we will outline a full-stack approach that leverages AI to overcome the next set of scaling challenges.

Biography
Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini is an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University and a senior staff research scientist at DeepMind. Her research interest is developing capable and efficient AI systems that can solve high-impact, real-world problems. Before joining Stanford, Prof. Mirhoseini spent several years in industry, working on frontier generative AI and deep reinforcement learning projects at Anthropic and Google Brain. She has led a diverse portfolio of AI and Systems projects, with publications in Nature, ICML, ICLR, NeurIPS, UAI, ASPLOS, SIGMETRICS, DAC, DATE, and ICCAD. She has received a number of awards, including the MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35, the Best Ph.D. Thesis at Rice University’s ECE Department, and a Gold Medal in the National Math Olympiad in Iran. Her work has been covered in various media outlets, including MIT Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, The Verge, Times of London, ZDNet, VentureBeat, and WIRED.

More on Azalia Mirhoseini: http://azaliamirhoseini.com/

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 12/1/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

NEWS! – Dr. Dileep Kalathil and Dr. Moble Benedict receive Office of Naval Research (ONR) grant

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Dr. Dileep Kalathil and Dr. Moble Benedict received  an Office of Naval Research (ONR) grant to study Autonomous VTOL Aircraft Ship Landing. The team is geared to develop the next generation of fully autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft on ships under rough conditions by combining an optimal aircraft design with a robust reinforcement learning control algorithm so precise that even if a vehicle is changing course or is in the presence of heavy winds, it can still track the horizon bar on the ship, which is a green, lighted, gyro-stabilized strip that provides the pilot an artificial horizon.

Dr. Benedict and Dr. Kalathil have proven success in using reinforcement learning to track and safely land an unmanned aerial system (UAS) in various conditions, including moderate horizontal winds, foggy visibility and changes in course and speed. Now, they’re merging their respective disciplines of aerospace engineering and electrical and computer engineering to build on these advancements.

More on this HERE

       

NEWS! – Dr. Srinivas Shakkottai and Dr. Dileep Kalathil receive National Science Foundation (NSF) grant

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Principal investigator Dr. Srinivas Shakkottai and co-principal investigator Dr. Dileep Kalathil recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to research EdgeRIC: Real-time radio access network intelligent control for the next generation of cellular networks. In their lab, Shakkottai and Kalathil are conducting experiments to show how EdgeRIC operates and the significance of real-time control happening every millisecond. Joining the project is Dr. Dinesh Bharadia, an associate professor from the University of California San Diego and an adjunct professor at Texas A&M.

More on this at https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2023/09/engineering-researchers-to-study-wireless-communication-and-machine-learning-with-nsf-grant.html

       

 

 

 

 

 

CESG Seminar: Abu Sebastian

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Friday, October 20, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Abu Sebastian
Distinguished Research Scientist, IBM Research – Europe

Title: “Analog In-Memory Computing for Deep Learning Inference“

Talking Points: 

  • What is analog in-memory computing (AIMC)?
  • How mature is AIMC?
  • What are the key open research topics and what’s next for AIMC?

Abstract
I will introduce analog in-memory computing based on non-volatile memory technology with a focus on the key concepts and the associated terminology. Subsequently, a multi-tile mixed-signal AIMC chip for deep learning inference will be presented. This chip fabricated in 14nm CMOS technology comprises 64 AIMC cores/tiles based on phase-change memory technology. It will serve as the basis to delve deeper into the device, circuits, architectural and algorithmic aspects of AIMC. Of particular focus will be achieving floating point-equivalent classification accuracy while performing the bulk of computations in the analog domain with relatively less precision. I will also present an architectural vision for a next generation AIMC chip for DNN inference. I will conclude with an outlook for the future.

Two papers that may be of interest:

  1. “Y2023_legallo_NatureElectronics.pdf”

  2. “Y2020_sebastian_NatureNano.pdf”

Biography
Abu Sebastian is one of the technical leaders of IBM’s research efforts towards next generation AI Hardware and manages the in-memory computing group at IBM Research – Zurich. He is the author of over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals/conference proceedings and holds over 90 US patents.  In 2015 he was awarded the European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant and in 2020, he was awarded an ERC Proof-of-concept grant. He was an IBM Master Inventor and was named Principal and Distinguished Research Staff Member in 2018 and 2020, respectively. In 2019, he received the Ovshinsky Lectureship Award for his contributions to “Phase-change materials for cognitive computing”. In 2023, he was conferred the title of Visiting Professor in Materials by University of Oxford. He is a distinguished lecturer and fellow of the IEEE.

More on Abu Sebastian: https://research.ibm.com/people/abu-sebastian

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 10/20/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

CESG Seminar: Arif Merchant

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Friday, October 13, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Arif Merchant
Research Scientist @ Google

Title: “Research Directions in Google Storage“

Talking Points: 

  • How does Google Storage work?
  • How do you lay out data across tens of thousands of disks, dozens of device types, with wildly varying failure rates and capacities, while keeping them all well utilized, and the data safe?
  • What are the open research questions in Cloud Storage?

Abstract
Google’s Cloud is a very large consumer of storage, and these storage systems are geographically distributed, multi-layered, heterogeneous, and complex. We present a high-level overview of Google’s storage systems, the common challenges faced by storage at Google, and explore several research directions for managing and optimizing the resources used. We will touch upon topics in layout, encoding, and new storage technologies. We will conclude with a discussion of some open questions.

Biography
Arif Merchant is a Research Scientist at Google and leads the Storage Analytics group, which studies interactions between components of the storage stack. His interests include distributed storage systems, storage management, and stochastic modeling. He holds the B.Tech. degree from IIT Bombay and the Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.


More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 10/13/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Best Student Paper Award

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Congratulations to Dr. Jiang Hu, Ph.D. student Yishuang Lin and former Ph.D. student Yaguang Li!

Their paper “MMM: Machine Learning-Based Macro-Modeling for Linear Analog ICs and ADC/DACs” won the Best Student Paper Award at the 5th ACM/IEEE Workshop on Machine Learning for CAD (MLCAD 2023).

This work introduces macro-model level machine learning techniques to address the problems of huge model construction cost and low model reusability for linear analog ICs and ADC/DACs.

Kudos!

CESG Seminar – Bingzhe Li

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Friday, October 6, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Bingzhe Li
Assistant Professor I Dept. of Computer Science
University of Texas at Dallas

Title: “Next-Generation Storage Systems for Big Data”

Talking Points: 

  • How to efficiently manage current emerging storage devices
  • How to design a new DNA storage system
  • How to build a high-performance storage system for big-data applications

Abstract
Tremendous technology developments have been witnessed in the area of computing, network and storage systems. A huge amount of digital data was generated in the past decades with the rapid growth of new technology development such Internet of Things (IoT) devices, edge devices, sensors, 5G, and so forth. Such vast amounts of digital data are being generated and are available for access to all new applications. It becomes a critical and increasing challenge to manage this huge amount of data available at our fingertips and to locate the information that we need at anytime from anywhere.

In this talk, I will focus on emerging storage systems for big data from two perspectives. First, from the capacity perspective, two emerging storage devices/systems with large areal densities (i.e., shingled magnetic recording (SMR) and DNA storage) are introduced including their management and utilization. For SMR, based on its unique properties, we introduce a Machine Learning (ML) based scheme to improve the performance of the SMR storage system. Moreover, for image-based applications, we will introduce how to efficiently store images into DNA storage with higher reliability and capacity. Secondly, from the performance perspective, I will present a high-performance system to accelerate graph neural networks (GNNs). The system is co-designed with the storage systems and algorithms in GNNs and finally can significantly speed up the training process of GNNs.

Biography
Dr. Bingzhe Li is currently an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2018 after which he worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

His research interests focus on memory and storage systems, computer architecture, and low-cost computing architecture. He has served on conference organization committees as well as technical program committees and as reviewer for several major conferences and journals in computer system, storage, and computing architecture. In recognition of his research, he received the Best Paper Nomination at the ICCD’21 and the featured paper of the Month at IEEE Transactions of Computers on March 2021.


More on Bingzhe Li: Bingzhe Li (tamu.edu)

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 10/6/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

2022 Awards: Dr. Reddy & Dr. Khatri

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Congratulations Dr. Khatri on your 2022 Engineering Faculty Award! Well done!

Congratulations Dr. Reddy on your Engineering Honoree Award!

Congratulations Dr. Hu!

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CESG’s Jiang Hu has a new publication: Machine Learning Applications in Electronic Design Automation by himself and Dr. Haoxing Ren.

This book covers a wide range of the latest research on ML applications in electronic design automation (EDA), including analysis and optimization of digital design, analysis and optimization of analog design, as well as functional verification, FPGA and system level designs, design for manufacturing, and design space exploration. The ML techniques covered in this book include classical ML, deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks, graph neural networks, generative adversarial networks and optimization methods such as reinforcement learning and Bayesian optimization.

More information at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/machine-learning-applications-in-electronic-design-automation-haoxing-ren/1141727406?ean=9783031130748

Dr. P.R. Kumar – IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal

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Dr. Kumar is the 2022 recipient of one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) most prestigious honors — the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal. It is the highest award by IEEE in communications and networking. Kumar was recognized for his seminal contributions to the modeling, analysis and design of wireless networks.

For more, go to https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2021/12/kumar-awarded-institute-of-electrical-and-electronics-engineers-medal.html.

Congratulations Dr. Kumar!

Congratulations Dr. Karan Watson!

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Dr. Karan Watson, Regents Professor, was awarded the 2021 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Lifetime Achievement Award in Engineering Education. Dr. Watson was recognized for her pioneering leadership and sustained contributions to education in the fields of engineering and engineering technology.

For the full article or a more in-depth look at her work, please visit: Texas A&M Engineering News and Dr. Watson’s Google Scholar Profile

Past Recipients
2012 Richard M. Felder
2014 James E. Stice
2015 Karl A. Smith
2016 Russ Pimmel
2018 James L. Melsa
2019 K.L. DeVries
2020 Don P. Giddens
2021  Karan L. Watson

CESG Former Student Shiyan Hu Elected to European Academy of Sciences and Arts

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CESG former student, Shiyan Hu, who received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering in 2008, has been elected as a Member for  European Academy of Sciences and Arts for his significant contributions to Design, Optimization, and Security of Cyber-Physical Systems. European Academy of Sciences and Arts currently has about 2,000 members, including 34 Nobel Prize Laureates, who are world leading scientists, artists, and practitioners of governance, with expertise ranging from Natural Sciences, Medicine, Technical & Environmental Sciences, Humanities, to Social Sciences. Academy members, who are dedicated to innovative research, international collaboration as well as the exchange and dissemination of knowledge, are elected based on their outstanding achievements.

Shiyan Hu is a professor and the Chair in Cyber-Physical System Security and Director of Cyber Security Academy at University of Southampton. He has published more than 150 refereed papers in the area of Cyber-Physical Systems, Cyber-Physical System Security, and VLSI Computer Aided Design, where most of his journal articles appeared in IEEE/ACM Transactions. He is an ACM Distinguished Speaker, an IEEE Systems Council Distinguished Lecturer, a recipient of the 2017 IEEE Computer Society TCSC Middle Career Researcher Award, and a recipient of the 2014 U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award. His publications have received distinctions such as the 2018 IEEE Systems Journal Best Paper Award, the 2017 Keynote Paper in IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design, the Front Cover Paper in IEEE Transactions on Nanobioscience in March 2014, multiple Thomson Reuters ESI Highly Cited Papers/Hot Papers, etc. His ultra-fast slew buffering technique has been widely deployed in the industry for designing over 50 microprocessor and ASIC chips such as IBM flagship chips POWER 7 and 8.

He is a well-recognized international leader in his field. He is chairing the IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems, leading IET Cyber-Physical Systems: Theory & Applications, and chaired the 2020 Editor-in-Chief Search Committee Chair for ACM TODAES. He has served as an Associate Editor

r for 5 IEEE/ACM Transactions such as IEEE TCAD, IEEE TII and ACM TCPS and as a Guest Editor for various IEEE/ACM journals such as Proceedings of the IEEE and IEEE Transactions on Computers. He is an Elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, a Fellow of IET, and a Fellow of British Computer Society.

Shiyan Hu says: “I am delighted to be elected as a Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts. It is a unique honor in recognition of my research accomplishments and international leadership in my research fields. After many years following my graduation, I still feel very grateful to the education I received from Texas A&M’s Computer Engineering Group and research experience with my Ph.D. advisor Professor Jiang Hu. These were pivotally helpful for me to contribute significantly to my fields.”

Agricultural Blue Legacy Award

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Congratulations to Dr. Jiang Hu and team for receiving the Agricultural Blue Legacy Award this March.

They developed a center pivot automation and control system known as CPACS. This contributes to water conservation in the field of agriculture. To learn more, go to http://www.hpwd.org/newswire/2021/3/18/amarillo-water-management-team-honored.

The team is referred to as the “Amarillo Water Management Team” and includes:
Dr. Hongxin Kong, CEEN, PhD Graduate
Jianfeng Song, CEEN, PhD Candidate
Dr. Justin Sun, CEEN, PhD Graduate
Dr. Yanxiang Yang, CEEN, PhD Graduate
Dr. Jiang Hu, co-director of graduate programs in the Texas A&M Department of Electrical and omputer Engineering at College Station;
Dr. Gary Marek, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service agricultural engineer at Bushland;
Thomas Marek, AgriLife Research senior research engineer at Amarillo;
Dr. Dana Porter, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program leader in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Lubbock; and
Dr. Qingwu Xue, AgriLife Research crop stress physiologist at Amarillo.

Thank you Amarillo Water Management Team for improving our world with your projects!

 

Pic 1: Dr. Hongxin Kong
Pic 2: Dr. Jiang Hu & Dr. Yanxiang Yang
Pic 3: Dr. Hongxin Kong
Feature Pic: Yanxiang Yang, Thomas Marek & Justin Sun

CESG Seminar: Azalia Mirhoseini

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Friday, December 1, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Stanford University

Title: “Pushing the Limits of Scaling Laws in the Age of Large Language Models“

Abstract 
The recent success of large language models has been characterized by scaling laws – the power law relationship between performance and training dataset size, model parameter size, and training compute. In this talk, we will discuss ways to push the scaling laws even further by innovating across data, models, software and hardware. This includes reinforcement learning from human and AI feedback to improve learning efficiency, sparse and dynamic mixture-of-experts neural architectures for better performance, an automated framework for co-designing custom AI accelerators, and a deep RL method for chip floorplanning used in multiple generations of Google AI’s accelerator chips (TPU). Through these cutting-edge examples, we will outline a full-stack approach that leverages AI to overcome the next set of scaling challenges.

Biography
Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini is an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University and a senior staff research scientist at DeepMind. Her research interest is developing capable and efficient AI systems that can solve high-impact, real-world problems. Before joining Stanford, Prof. Mirhoseini spent several years in industry, working on frontier generative AI and deep reinforcement learning projects at Anthropic and Google Brain. She has led a diverse portfolio of AI and Systems projects, with publications in Nature, ICML, ICLR, NeurIPS, UAI, ASPLOS, SIGMETRICS, DAC, DATE, and ICCAD. She has received a number of awards, including the MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35, the Best Ph.D. Thesis at Rice University’s ECE Department, and a Gold Medal in the National Math Olympiad in Iran. Her work has been covered in various media outlets, including MIT Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, The Verge, Times of London, ZDNet, VentureBeat, and WIRED.

More on Azalia Mirhoseini: http://azaliamirhoseini.com/

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 12/1/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

CESG Seminar: Dr. Neena Iman

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Friday, November 10, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Dr. Neena Iman
Director of the O’Donnell Data Science and Research Computing Institute (DSRCI)
Southern Methodist University (SMU)

Title: “Future of Data Science: HPC+AI+Beyond-Moore“

Abstract 

The computing ecosystem is at an inflection point with many disruptive technologies merging together. With the debut of exascale supercomputers recently, the architecture of the next generation of HPC platforms is being discussed in the scientific community. The definition of HPC has changed. HPC is no longer just about floating-point operations, but also about the ability to ingest and process huge amounts of data. The traditional HPC applications/workloads are benefiting from the incorporation of AI and machine learning. Additionally, with the plateauing of Moore’s law, there is tremendous momentum in Beyond-Moore technologies, particularly in quantum. This talk will discuss the future of data science in this rapidly changing technology landscape.

Biography
Dr. Neena Iman is the inaugural Director of the O’Donnell Data Science and Research Computing Institute (DSRCI) at Southern Methodist University (SMU), a position key to the university’s commitment to data-focused education and next-gen computational research. The DSRCI also serves as the gateway to SMU’s HPC environment. Before joining SMU,

Neena Imam served as the Director of Strategic Researcher Engagement at NVIDIA corporation, the industry-leader in GPU computing and AI/ML research. In this role, Neena worked with academic researchers to enable GPU-accelerated and AI/ML applications development. Before NVIDIA, Neena served as a distinguished scientist and the Director of Research Collaboration in the Computin

g and Computational Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). At ORNL, Neena performed research in HPC, as well as next-generation microelectronics and Post Moore computing.  Neena is the author/co-author of many scientific articles, served as an invited speaker and panelist at many conferences, and is active in professional organizations to promote research and education in HPC and AI.

Neena holds a Doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, with Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in the same field from Case Western Reserve University and California Institute of Technology, respectively. Neena also served as the Science and Technology Fellow for Senator Lamar Alexander in Washington D.C. (2010-2012). Neena is a senior member of IEEE,  served as an IEEE officer for multiple years, and is the founding Chair of ACM SIGHPC ASCAN (Accelerated Scalable Computing and ANalytics) chapter.

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 11/10/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

CESG Seminar: Doug Burger

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Friday, October 27, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Doug Burger
Technical Fellow | Microsoft

Title: “The New AI Computing Stack“

Talking Points:

  • Emergent capabilities of large language models, built on top of deep learning
  • The intersection of traditional computing and the AI stack
  • The evolution of the AI stack, key challenges and problems
  • Future implications of the tandem working of the traditional and AI stacks

Abstract
We have entered a new era of computing.  Large language models, built on top of deep learning, have shown surprising emergent capabilities.

These capabilities, such as rich semantic understanding, ability to generate content, and ability to plan and reason, will change how people use computers and for what computers can effectively be used.

This AI stack is effectively a second general class of computing that intersects with the traditional computing stack in surprising and compelling ways.

In this talk I will discuss how the AI stack is evolving, some of the key challenges that we are currently facing, and the most important problems to be working on in this area.

If we are successful, and these challenges are solved, these two computing stacks working in tandem will transform and up-level humanity’s capabilities.

Biography
Doug Burger is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft.  From 1999-2008, he served on the Computer Sciences faculty at UT-Austin, where he co-led the TRIPS project with Steve Keckler.

From 2008-2018, he was a researcher in Microsoft Research, where he led the Catapult and Brainwave projects, which both shipped at large scale in Microsoft’s datacenter infrastructure.

From 2018-2022 he served as a product executive in Azure’s new hardware group, leading teams architecting large-scale AI infrastructure.

In 2023, he returned to Microsoft Research to help drive advanced thinking in AI-based computing.  He is a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE.

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 10/27/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

CESG Seminar: Abu Sebastian

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Friday, October 20, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Abu Sebastian
Distinguished Research Scientist, IBM Research – Europe

Title: “Analog In-Memory Computing for Deep Learning Inference“

Talking Points: 

  • What is analog in-memory computing (AIMC)?
  • How mature is AIMC?
  • What are the key open research topics and what’s next for AIMC?

Abstract
I will introduce analog in-memory computing based on non-volatile memory technology with a focus on the key concepts and the associated terminology. Subsequently, a multi-tile mixed-signal AIMC chip for deep learning inference will be presented. This chip fabricated in 14nm CMOS technology comprises 64 AIMC cores/tiles based on phase-change memory technology. It will serve as the basis to delve deeper into the device, circuits, architectural and algorithmic aspects of AIMC. Of particular focus will be achieving floating point-equivalent classification accuracy while performing the bulk of computations in the analog domain with relatively less precision. I will also present an architectural vision for a next generation AIMC chip for DNN inference. I will conclude with an outlook for the future.

Two papers that may be of interest:

  1. “Y2023_legallo_NatureElectronics.pdf”

  2. “Y2020_sebastian_NatureNano.pdf”

Biography
Abu Sebastian is one of the technical leaders of IBM’s research efforts towards next generation AI Hardware and manages the in-memory computing group at IBM Research – Zurich. He is the author of over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals/conference proceedings and holds over 90 US patents.  In 2015 he was awarded the European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant and in 2020, he was awarded an ERC Proof-of-concept grant. He was an IBM Master Inventor and was named Principal and Distinguished Research Staff Member in 2018 and 2020, respectively. In 2019, he received the Ovshinsky Lectureship Award for his contributions to “Phase-change materials for cognitive computing”. In 2023, he was conferred the title of Visiting Professor in Materials by University of Oxford. He is a distinguished lecturer and fellow of the IEEE.

More on Abu Sebastian: https://research.ibm.com/people/abu-sebastian

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 10/20/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

CESG Seminar: Arif Merchant

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Friday, October 13, 2023
10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Arif Merchant
Research Scientist @ Google

Title: “Research Directions in Google Storage“

Talking Points: 

  • How does Google Storage work?
  • How do you lay out data across tens of thousands of disks, dozens of device types, with wildly varying failure rates and capacities, while keeping them all well utilized, and the data safe?
  • What are the open research questions in Cloud Storage?

Abstract
Google’s Cloud is a very large consumer of storage, and these storage systems are geographically distributed, multi-layered, heterogeneous, and complex. We present a high-level overview of Google’s storage systems, the common challenges faced by storage at Google, and explore several research directions for managing and optimizing the resources used. We will touch upon topics in layout, encoding, and new storage technologies. We will conclude with a discussion of some open questions.

Biography
Arif Merchant is a Research Scientist at Google and leads the Storage Analytics group, which studies interactions between components of the storage stack. His interests include distributed storage systems, storage management, and stochastic modeling. He holds the B.Tech. degree from IIT Bombay and the Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.


More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 10/13/23 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.