People
EI Lab would be nothing without its members – past, present, and future. Our 2 faculty members, Dr. Li and Dr. Chen, work hard to forward research in their field. With the help of their team of 23 graduate students, 1 post doctorate, and 3 visiting scholars, they have forged lasting partnerships in both industry and academia. The lab’s 14 alumni now continue their careers at a number of different universities, government agencies, and private companies.

Faculty

Yiran Chen

Associate Professor

Benedum Hall, Room 1107, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Email: [email protected]
Phone Number: +1 (412) 624-5836
Fax: +1 (412) 624-8003

Curriculum Vitae

 

 

Hai (Helen) Li

Associate Professor

Benedum Hall, Room 1108, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Email: [email protected]
Phone Number: +1 (412) 648-9597
Fax: +1 (412) 624-8003

Curriculum Vitae

 

 

Students

Xiuyuan Bi, PhD Candidate

  • Circuit and architecture level co-optimization of STT-RAM caches
  • STT-RAM prototype chip tape-out with SMIC 65nm technology
 Senior ASIC Design Engineer, Marvell
[email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Ph.D. Forum Best Presentation, DAC 2014
  • Best paper nominations, ICCAD 2013
  • Best paper nominations, ICCAD 2012
  • Best academic achievement award, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, 2011
Work Experience
  • Internship, Corp R&D of Qualcomm Inc. (10/2011 - 12/2011)

Yaojun Zhang, PhD Candidate

  • Statistical analysis and modeling on STT-RAM
  • Variation-tolerant STT-RAM circuit design
 Member of technical staff, EverSpin
[email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Dean’s scholarship, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 2011
Work Experience
  • Internship, Corp R&D of Qualcomm Inc. (6/2014 - 9/2014)

Xiang Chen, PhD Candidate

  • Smartphone
  • OLED Display
  • Low Power Systems
  • System & Application Development
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Most Popular Poster Award, ACM SIGDA Student Research Forum, ASPDAC 2015
  • Excellence Award, Star of Tomorrow Internship Program, Microsoft Research Asia, 2014
  • Second Prize, Randall Family Big Idea Start-up Competition, 2014
  • Travel Grand, ACM SIGDA Student Research Forum , ASPDAC 2015
  • Student Travel Grant Award, Non-Volatile Memory Workshop​ 2013
  • ravel Grand, ACM Student Research Competition , DAC 2012
Work Experience
  • Visiting Scholar, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (7/2015 - 8/2015)
  • Internship, Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China. (6/2014 - 9/2014)
  • Internship, Samsung Research, Dallas, TX. (7/2013 - 11/2013)
  • Internship, Samsung Research, Dallas, TX. (9/2012 - 12/2012)

Jie Guo, PhD Candidate

  • NAND Flash-based memory storage system
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Student Travel Grant Award, Non-Volatile Memory Workshop​ 2013
Work Experience
  • Internship, Huawei Technologies, China. (6/2015 - 9/2015)
  • Internship, Fusion-IO Research, CA. (5/2013 - 6/2013)
  • Logic engineer, Symantec Technology Co. Ltd, , Xi’an, China. (6/2008 - 6/2011)

Beiye Liu, PhD Candidate

  • CAD for neuromorphic computing system
  • Machine learning
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Richard Newton Young Student Fellow, DAC 2013

 
Work Experience
  • Internship, Uber Advanced Technology Center, Pittsburgh, PA. (5/2015 - 8/2015)
  • Visiting scholar, HP Research Lab, CA. (2013)

Lu Zhang, PhD Student

  • Memristor modeling (TaOx, TiOx)
  • Application model
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Work Experience
  • Internship, HP Research lab, Palo Alto, CA. (5/2015 - 8/2015)
  • Internship, HP Research lab, Palo Alto, CA. (5/2014 - 8/2014)

Kent W. Nixon, PhD Student

  • Embedded and mobile computing
  • Mobile security
  • Machine-learning algorithms
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • ECE Outstanding TA Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2015
  • Second Prize, University Technology Showcase, Three River Venture Fair, 2014
  • Second Prize, Randall Family Big Idea Start-up Competition, 2014
  • Best Smart Tags App, Hackathon Powered by AT&T, 2014
  • ECE Outstanding TA Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2014
  • Air Force Visiting Student Scholarship, Air Force Research Laboratory, 2012
  • Richard Newton Young Fellow, DAC 2013
Work Experience
  • Internship, Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China. (5/2014 - 9/2014)
  • Internship, Air Force Research Laboratory. (05/2012 - 06/2012)

Mengjie Mao, PhD Candidate

  • Prefetching Techniques for STT-RAM based Last-level Cache in CMP Systems
  • Coordinating Prefetching and STT-RAM based Last-level Cache
  • Management for Multicore Systems

 

 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Best Paper Candidate, ASPDAC 2014
  • Best Paper Award, GLSVLSI 2013

Xiaoxiao Liu, PhD Candidate

  • Heterogeneous system and neuromorphic computing
  • STTRAM dynamically configurable translation lookaside buffer
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Richard Newton Young Student Fellow, DAC 2014
Work Experience
  • Internship, AMD Sunnyvale Design Center, Sunnyvale, CA (9/2014 - 12/2014)
  • Senior ASIC/Layout Design Engineer, AMD, Shanghai, China. (2012)
  • Digital IC Design/Verification Engineer, Toshiba, Japan. (2011)
  • Digital IC Design/Verification Enginee, SONY, Japan. (2009)

Ismail Bayram, PhD Student

  • Emerging memory devices (STT-RAM, Memristor, FeRam etc.)
  • Asymmetric Differential STT-RAM Cell Structure
  • Circuit design and VLSI/CAD
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Scholarship, Ministry of Education, Turkish(2010 - 2017)

Enes Eken, PhD Student

  • Emerging memory technologies and VLSI design/CAD
  • MTJ modeling and reliability issues of MTJs
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Scholarship, Ministry of Education, Turkey
Work Experience
  • Research and Development Engineer, Fultek Automation and Control Company. (2011)

Chenchen Liu, PhD Student

  • Neuromorphic computing
  • Emerging non-volitlile memory
  • Full-custom VLSI design
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Best Paper Award, ISVLSI 2014
Work Experience
  • Compact Model Engineer, SIMC, China. (2013)

Xue Wang, PhD Student

  • Computer architecture
  • Emerging memory
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Work Experience
  • Internship, Huawei Technologies, China (2011)

Sicheng Li, PhD Student

  • Neuromorphic computing
  • Heterogeneous system
  • SSD hardware implementation
 [email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Richard Newton Young Student Fellow, DAC 2015
Work Experience
  • Internship, Micron Technology, NY. (5/2015 - 8/2015)
  • SSD Engineer, Micron Technology, NY. (2013)
Bonan Yan, PhD Student

  • Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Modeling
  • Micromagnetic EDA Tools
  • Spintronic Device Macro-modeling
  • Neuron Computing VLSI Tape-out
 [email protected]
Google Scholar

Zheng Li, PhD Student

  • Emerging non-volatile memory
  • Neuron circuit design
 [email protected]
Google Scholar

Chunpeng Wu, PhD Student

  • Computer Vision
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Deep Learning
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • First Place, Chinese Handwriting Character Recognition Competition (ICDAR) 2013
  • Three patents on visual saliency detection and optical character recognition; Fujitsu General Manager Award, 2013
  • Excellent Graduate and Thesis Award, 2011
Work Experience
  • Internship, Micron Technology, NY. (5/2015 - 8/2015)
  • Computer Vision Researcher, Fujitsu R&D Center, Beijing, China. (2011 - 2014)

Wei Wen, PhD Student

    • Neuromorphic Computing
    • Machine Learning
    • Mobile Computing
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Best Paper Nomination, DAC 2015
Work Experience
  • Web developer, Agricultural Bank of China.(08/2013 - 07/2014)
  • Internship, Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China. (4/2013 - 6/2013)
  • Web developer, Tencent, (07/2012 - 09/2012)

Linghao Song, PhD Student

  • Neuromorphic Computing
 [email protected]

Chaofei Yang, PhD Student

  • Neural Network Design
  • Deep Learning
 [email protected]
Google Scholar

Chuhan Min, PhD Student

  • Computer Architecture
  • Emerging Memory
  • NAND Flash Memory-Based Hybrid File System
 [email protected]

Yandan Wang, PhD Student

  • Neuromorphic Computing
  • Information Security
 [email protected]Google Scholar
Work Experience
  • Embedded System Engineer, Tendyron Corp., China, (05/2013-08/2014)
  • Internship, Chiplight IC Design Corp., China. (10/2011-10/2012)

Alof, Abdulkarim Saudi Arabia, PhD Student

  • Computer architecture
  • Machine Learning
  • Embedded and mobile computing
 [email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • King Abdullah Scholarship Program, Saudi Arabian Government (2013 - 2020)
Work Experience
  • Teaching assistant, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia (11/2012-12/2013)
  • Coop trainee, Saudi Aramco Company, Saudi Arabia. (07/2011-01/2012)

Jessica Egler, BS Student

 [email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • US Steel Academic Scholarship, 2013
Work Experience
  • Evolutionary Intelligence Lab Web Admisintrator, University of Pittsburgh. (03/2013 - Present)
  • Marketing/Customer Service Internship, Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA. (05/2013 - 01/2014)

Alumni

Wujie Wen, PhD, 2015

  • Statistic Emerging Non-volatile Memory Tool Design
  • Novel ECC/Repair schemes for Emerging Memories
  • VLSI Circuit & Computer Architecture Design
 Assistant Professor
ECE Department
Florida International University
[email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Dean’s Scholarship, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 2015
  • ACM SIGDA Student Research Competition (SRC) Bronze Medal, ICCAD, 2014
  • Best Paper Nomination, DAC, 2014
  • John A. Jurenko Graduate Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2014
  • A. Richard Newton Scholarship, DAC 2012
  • Young Student Support Program, DAC 2012
  • Travel Grant, PhD Forum, DAC 2015
  • Student Travel Grant Award, Non-Volatile Memory Workshop​ 2012
Work Experience
  • Internship, Broadcom San Diego, CA (1/2013 - 4/2013)
  • Internship, Broadcom San Diego, CA (5/2012 - 8/2012)
  • Design Engineer, AMD, Shanghai, China (2011)

Yi-Chung Chen, PhD, 2014

  • Partial reconfiguration and power CAD tools for FPGA
  • Reconfigurable circuit for FPGA based on non-volatile memory
  • Circuit design and structure of Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM)
  • Device & Process design of MOSFET
 [email protected]
Google Scholar
Work Experience
  • Technical Support Engineer, Texas Instruments, TX (2008)

Miao Hu, PhD, 2014

  • Device modeling, memristor
  • Neuromorphic computation & hardware

 

Postdoc, Hewlett-Packard Labs

[email protected]

Google Scholar

Zhenyu Sun, PhD, 2013

  • Emerging memory technology
  • Fault-tolerant circuit design for memory system
 Scientist, Staff II - IC Design, Broadcom
[email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • EDAA Best Dissertation Award, 2015.

Peiyuan Wang, MS, 2011

  • Emerging memory
  • Low-power circuit design
  • High-speed data converter

 

 Engineer, Qualcomm
[email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Student Travel Awared, IEEE International Magnetic Conference, 2011

Ping Lang, MS, 2013

  • Embedded system development
  • Application development

 

 Software Engineer I, SAP
[email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Distinguished Recognition, Cornell Cup, 2013
  • Honor Student, Shanghai University, 2011
  • Second Prize Scholarship, Shanghai University, 2010
  • First Prize Scholarship, Shanghai University, 2009
  • Third Prize Scholarship, Shanghai University, 2008
Work Experience
  • Internship, Amazon. (7/2013 - 8/2013)
  • Controls Engineer, General Motors. (7/2011 - 7/2012)
  • Internship, GE. (12/2010 - 2/2011)
  • Internship, Johnson Controls. (3/2010 - 8/2010)

 

Visiting Student Alumni

Kai Bu, Visiting PhD Student

  • Embedded System
  • Non-volatile Memory
 Lecturer
National University of Defense Technology, China
[email protected]

Ling Chen, Visiting PhD Student

  • Memristor
  • Memristive neural network
  • Image processing
  • Nonlinear systems
 Lecture
College of Electronic and Information Engineering
Southwest University, China
[email protected]
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • The scholarship of the State Scholarship Fund, Chongqing University, 2013
  • First-Class Scholarship for Graduate Students, Chongqing University, 2012
  • Excellent Graduate Student, Chongqing University, 2011
  • Outstanding Graduates Award, Yunnan Province Government, China, 2010

Xiaofang Hu, Visiting PhD Student

  • Memristor & memristive systems
  • Application in neuromorphic computing systems
 Ph.D. student, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
xiaofanghs@gmail .com
Google Scholar
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Research Tuition Scholarship, City University of Hong Kong
  • National Scholarship, City University of Hong Kong
  • Outstanding Postgraduate Award, City University of Hong Kong
  • Outstanding Academic Performance Award for Research Degree Students

 

 

Visiting Scholar Alumni

Dejiao Niu, Visiting Associate Professor

  • Non-volatile memory
  • multi-media semantic analysis
 Associate Professor
School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering
Jiangsu University, China
[email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Science and Technology Progress Award, Zhenjiang Goverment, China, 2009
  • Science and Technology Progress Award, Zhenjiang Goverment, China, 2006
Work Experience
  • School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering, Jiangsu University (09/2000 - Present)
  • Department of Elctrical and Computer Engineering,University of Pittsburgh (10/2013 - 10/2014)

Tao Cai, Visiting Associate Professor

  • Non-volatile memory
  • File systems
  • Network Storage
  • Artificial immune system
 Associate Professor
School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering
Jiangsu University, China
[email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Science and Technology Progress Award, Zhenjiang Goverment, China, 2008
  • Science and Technology Progress Award, Zhenjiang Goverment, China, 2003
Work Experience
  • Visiting Scholar of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh (10/2013 - 10/2014)
  • Visiting scholar of Computer Department. Tsinghua University (2011-2012)
  • Associate Professor of School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering, Jiangsu University,China (2009 - Present)
  • Lecturer of School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering, Jiangsu University,China (2005-2009)

Linan Li, Visiting Associate Professor

  • RF and Analog
  • IC Design
  • Sub-micron CMOS Process
 Associate Professor
School of Electronic and Information Engineering
Beijing Jiaotong University, China
[email protected]
Work Experience
  • Associate Professor, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, China (01/2008 - Present)
  • Associate Professor,Institute for Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China (04/2004 - 12/2007)
  • Associate Member of Technical Staff, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore (9/2001 - 3/2004)

Danghui Wang, Visiting Associate Professor

  • Computer Architecture
  • Emerging Memory Technology
  • Reliability of Digital Systems

 

 Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science and EngineeringNorthwestern Polytechnic University, China
[email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • First Class Prize for the Progress in Science and Technology, Shan’xi Goverment, China, 2008
  • The first class prize for the Progress in Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, China, 2004
Work Experience
  • Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnic University, China (05/2008 - Present)
  • Visiting scholar, Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Leuven, Belgium (07/2007 - 09/2007)
  • Lecturer, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnic University, China (04/2008 - 04/2008)

Lusheng Zhong, Visiting Associate Professor

  • Statistical learning
  • Data mining
 Associate Professor
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
East China Jiaotong University, China
[email protected]
Work Experience
  • Associate Professor of School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, East China Jiaotong University, China (09/2011 - Present)
  • Lecturer of School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, East China Jiaotong University, China (03/2008 - 09/2014)

Visiting Scholars & Students

Xuren Wang, Visiting Associate Professor

  • Programing
  • Data Mining
  • Network Security Data Analysis
 Associate Professor
Dept. of Intelligent Science and Technology
Capital Normal University
[email protected]
Awards & Travel Grants
  • Excellent Teacher of Capital Normal University, Jun-2005
  • Excellent Teacher of Capital Normal University, Jun-1998
  • Outstanding Director of Undergraduate graduation thesis in Capital Normal University, Jun-2013
  • Member of CCF(China Computer Federation)
Work Experience
  • Associate Professor: Dept. of Intelligent Science and Technology, Capital Normal University (07/2004-Present)
  • Research Staff Member: Computer Center of Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (09/2001-07/2004)
  • Assistant Professor: College of Information Engineering, Capital Normal University (07/1997-06/2001)

Meng Zhang, Visiting Associate Professor

  • Multi (many) cores processor architecture
  • Processor performance evaluation
  • Memory hierarchy
 Lecturer
School of Computer Science and Engineering
NWPU
[email protected]
Work Experience
  • Lecture: School of Computer Science and Engineering, NWPU (2008-Present)
  • Assistant Teacher: School of Computer Science and Engineering, NWPU (2004-2008)
  • Visiting Scholar: IMEC & Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2006)

Yiguang Gong, Visiting Assistant Professor

  • Machine learning
  • Web information extraction
  • Embedded systems
 Assistant Professor
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
[email protected]
Work Experience
  • Assistant Professor: School of Information and Control, NUIST(2009-2015)