{"694015":{"#nid":"694015","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Muralikrishnna Gurusswamy","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Learning and Identifying Structural Causal Models with Feedback Loops\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Faramarz Fekri, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Matthieu Bloch, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Cheng Mao, Math\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Mark Styczynski, ChBE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Razieh Nabi, Emory\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFeedback loops are common in systems such as gene regulation and protein signaling, yet most causal discovery methods assume that the underlying relationships are acyclic. This dissertation develops methods for learning structural causal models with feedback loops and characterizes what can be identified when measurements are incomplete, noisy, or affected by unmeasured confounding. For systems observed at equilibrium, it introduces four likelihood-based methods that combine observational and interventional data to learn causal graphs, allowing for nonlinear interactions and accounting for latent confounders, missing values that may depend on unobserved data, and measurement noise. It establishes conditions under which these methods recover the true graph up to an equivalence class. The dissertation also studies how to design sparse measurements that preserve information about causal structure in linear acyclic systems when there are fewer measurements than variables. Finally, for continuous-time systems with unmeasured confounding, it identifies conditions under which observed trajectories determine the system features needed to predict the effects of interventions.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Learning and Identifying Structural Causal Models with Feedback Loops "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-11 17:44:49","changed_gmt":"2026-11-11 17:45:55","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-23T09:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-23T11:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-23T11:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-23 14:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-23 16:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-23 16:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Online","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/meet\/2961879705356964?p=2Uf6kXXb94n9E5eHd4","title":"Microsoft Teams Link "}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"694014":{"#nid":"694014","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Evan Worthington","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; D-region Characterization With Trans-ionospheric VLF Signals\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Morris Cohen, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Bharat Kunduri, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Paul Steffes, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Andrew Peterson, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Glenn Lightsey, AE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Michael Peterson, GTRI-SEAL\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EVery low frequency (VLF, 3\u201330 kHz) signals, emitted by either manmade or natural sources, travel long distances in sub-ionospheric propagation modes. Some of this energy couples into the ionosphere and travels to satellite altitudes along a predominantly field-aligned path in what is known as a \u201cwhistler\u201d propagation mode. Along this path, these VLF signals encounter both frequency-dependent absorption and dispersion. When observed by satellites, these signals can be used to estimate the electron densities along the path to the satellite. New techniques for estimating electron densities in the lower ionosphere are presented using trans-ionospheric VLF signals recorded by the DEMETER satellite. These techniques employ an inverse modeling-based approach to select a parameterized model of electron densities in the D-region (60\u201390 km). Leveraging both narrowband and wideband field measurements recorded by DEMETER over the course of its six-year mission, the algorithms presented produce estimates of D-region electron densities that are consistent with expected values and represent new tools for the study of the lower ionosphere, a region that has proven challenging to study with traditional sensing methods.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"D-region Characterization With Trans-ionospheric VLF Signals "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-11 17:43:12","changed_gmt":"2026-11-11 17:43:30","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-18T14:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-18T16:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-18T16:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-18 19:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-18 21:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-18 21:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room W218, Van Leer","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"694009":{"#nid":"694009","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Vaidehi Garg","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Energy-Efficient Computing and Storage with Emerging Ferroelectric Memory Devices\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Shimeng Yu, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Visvesh Sathe, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Shaolan Li, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Jane Gu, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Hyesoon Kim, CoC\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe rapid growth of deep neural networks (DNNs) for artificial intelligence has increased the demand for energy-efficient computing. DNN workloads rely on compute- and data-intensive multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations, and in traditional von Neumann architectures, the movement of data between memory and logic dominates their energy and latency. Compute-in-memory (CIM) addresses this bottleneck by performing MAC operations within the memory array. This dissertation focuses on the design and evaluation of CIM and embedded memory arrays based on ferroelectric devices, which offer non-volatility, CMOS compatibility, and low-energy switching. The dissertation first presents a current-mode CIM chip based on ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs), with integrated readout and a programming scheme to reduce device variation. To tackle the challenges of resistive readout, the dissertation then configures FeFETs as ferroelectric non-volatile capacitors (nvCaps) and presents a charge-domain CIM chip, demonstrating non-destructive capacitive readout with on-chip sensing and evaluating the impact of device characteristics on inference accuracy. Finally, a design space exploration of an embedded non-volatile memory with non-destructive readout explores nvCap applications beyond CIM. Based on a proposed back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible 3D fin nvCap, this study evaluates whether single-row readout achieves sufficient sense margin under bitline parasitics, its sensitivity to device, circuit, and array parameters, and its energy consumption against other emerging memories. Together, these works show the potential of ferroelectric devices for energy-efficient computing and storage at the edge.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Energy-Efficient Computing and Storage with Emerging Ferroelectric Memory Devices "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-11 17:05:21","changed_gmt":"2026-11-11 17:05:47","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-18T12:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-18T14:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-18T14:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-18 17:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-18 19:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-18 19:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Online","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/meet\/215227091256258?p=zoxwEOih3V4Xu3WAVw","title":"Microsoft Teams Link "}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693790":{"#nid":"693790","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Nahid Shazon","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Modeling, Optimization, and Co-Design of Emerging Memory Technologies at Advanced Technology Nodes\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Azad Naeemi, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Jeff Davis, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Asif Khan, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Shimeng Yu, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Eric Vogel, MSE\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThis dissertation presents a multiscale modeling, optimization, and co-design framework for emerging memory technologies at advanced technology nodes, with a primary focus on spin-orbit-torque magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM). A device-level framework is developed to capture nanoscale conduction-current redistribution and the resulting nonuniform spin-current generation in SOT devices, and is subsequently extended to compact two-terminal (2T) SOT-MRAM. For perpendicular-magnetic-anisotropy devices, full-fixed-layer and half-fixed-layer configurations are evaluated to quantify the effects of device geometry, MTJ scaling, and spin-torque efficiencies on write performance, demonstrating that the half-fixed-layer architecture can achieve competitive write energy with reduced out-of-plane spin-torque requirements. The shared read\/write path of 2T SOT-MRAM is further investigated using a circuit-to-micromagnetics read-disturbance framework combining layout-extracted circuit simulations, finite-element current modeling, spin drift-diffusion analysis, and rare-event-enhancement-based micromagnetic simulations. The analysis is also extended to in-plane-magnetic-anisotropy devices using AuPt and \u03b2-W SOT channels, where the half-fixed-layer configuration reduces switching-current density and write energy. These device-level concepts are then incorporated into a hierarchical 2T SOT-MRAM system and evaluated after physical implementation, demonstrating substantial improvements in area, bit density, and read energy-delay-area product relative to a three-terminal baseline. Finally, advanced interconnect technologies are evaluated within a complete 7 nm SRAM RTL-to-GDS flow to establish an optimized conventional-memory reference, showing that BEOL improvements can significantly enhance SRAM performance and energy efficiency.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Modeling, Optimization, and Co-Design of Emerging Memory Technologies at Advanced Technology Nodes "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:42:53","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:44:14","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-12-02T14:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-12-02T16:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-12-02T16:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-12-02 19:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-12-02 21:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-12-02 21:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 231A, MiRC","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/meetup-join\/19%3ameeting_MmY0M2U5OGEtMWQ0YS00NWNiLTlkNjYtMzVmMjA0NWQwYjAy%40thread.v2\/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e60e1475-7062-4ac8-9532-083d75f2854b%22%7d","title":"Microsoft Teams Link "}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693789":{"#nid":"693789","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Euisuk  Chung","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Double-Emulsion perfluorocarbon nanodroplets for ultrasound and photoacoustic image-guided focused ultrasound drug delivery\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Stanislav Emelianov, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Brooks Lindsey, BME\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Costas Arvanitis, ME\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Ravi Kane, ChBE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Susan Thomas, ME\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Double-Emulsion perfluorocarbon nanodroplets for ultrasound and photoacoustic image-guided focused ultrasound drug delivery\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Stanislav Emelianov, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Brooks Lindsey, BME\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Costas Arvanitis, ME\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Ravi Kane, ChBE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Susan Thomas, ME\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Double-Emulsion perfluorocarbon nanodroplets for ultrasound and photoacoustic image-guided focused ultrasound drug delivery "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:39:59","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:41:35","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-19T15:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-19T17:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-19T17:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-19 20:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-19 22:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-19 22:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 1128, IBB","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/97855358532?pwd=UPad7CNtHEVRoAtDjC3bQW3mkG7YQp.1","title":"Zoom link"}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693788":{"#nid":"693788","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Arman Allahverdi","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; The Design and Analysis of Lightweight Cryptographic Primitives using Product Registers\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Vincent Mooney, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Santiago Grijalva, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Fabian Monrose, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Nicky Mouha, KeyCryptic\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Sukarno Mertoguno, SCS\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn recent years, the technological landscape has borne witness to the proliferation of embedded systems, low-power devices, and the Internet of Things, all of which have unique security needs. Moreover, the computing space has seen a push toward dedicated cryptoprocessors for the generation, storage, and management of cryptographic keys, for example, in the form of Trusted Platform Modules. There has been a growing interest in the field of lightweight cryptography, demonstrated by the recent introduction of a lightweight cryptography standard with the conclusion of the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Competition (2018-2023). A crucial aspect of designing lightweight cryptographic hardware is the investigation of primitives and structures that lend themselves to compact, low-power hardware implementations, with feedback registers serving as a popular example of a lightweight structure that has cryptographic applications. In particular, many lightweight cryptographic schemes from the literature use nonlinear feedback shift registers (NLFSRs) for the generation of exponential pseudorandom sequences. This dissertation proposes the use of a new class of feedback register (Product Registers) for lightweight cryptography, with emphasis on a derivative class of nonlinear feedback registers called Composite Mersenne Product Registers (CMPRs). Compared to NLFSRs, which are typically constructed using empirical evaluations, CMPRs provide mathematical guarantees for exponential average periodicity, are straightforward to construct for arbitrary state sizes, and admit an exponential number of constructions for a given state size. The use of Product Registers in various cryptographic schemes, including stream ciphers, a message authentication code, and a permutation-based cipher is covered, in addition to hardware efficiency comparisons with lightweight schemes from the literature and applications to critical infrastructure security. This dissertation also furthers the theory of Product Registers by introducing another derivative class of nonlinear feedback register called Hybrid Registers, which enable the direct use of feedback registers from the literature with Product Registers. The overall contribution of this dissertation is in-depth design space exploration of feedback register-based lightweight cryptography.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Design and Analysis of Lightweight Cryptographic Primitives using Product Registers "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:37:18","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:38:47","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-18T13:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-18T15:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-18T15:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-18 18:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-18 20:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-18 20:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 2350, Klaus ","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/meetup-join\/19%3ameeting_ODM2YjFkNTAtOWQxOC00ZmRjLWEzYmYtYjRiOTBiZmIzZWVm%40thread.v2\/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228e1f6b52-2b98-4f58-a7d8-5ba1257b570a%22%7d","title":"Microsoft Teams Link "}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693787":{"#nid":"693787","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Christophe  Ye","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Advancing Biomedical Research through Robust Knowledge Extraction and Retrieval\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Cassie Mitchell, BME, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Larry Heck ECE, Co-Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Sara Fridovich-Kiel, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Ying Zhang, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Polo Chau, CoC\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Aditya Prakash, CSE\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBiomedical records contain a vast amount of unstructured information that can provide valuable insights for patient care and clinical research. These records capture important details about diagnoses, treatments, outcomes, and clinical decision-making, but their unstructured nature makes them difficult to analyze at scale. To overcome these limitations, researchers have turned to natural language processing (NLP) techniques to automate biomedical knowledge extraction, the process of identifying and structuring relevant information from unstructured biomedical text, and knowledge retrieval, the process of identifying and accessing relevant information from existing biomedical resources. Despite substantial progress, existing systems remain constrained by performance gaps, limited generalizability, and restricted applicability across diverse domains and conditions, which hinders their reliable deployment in real-world settings. \u0026nbsp;This dissertation aims to advance the performance, robustness, and practical applicability of methods for identifying, grounding, retrieving, and structuring biomedical information. The broader goal is to transform complex biomedical text into structured and searchable knowledge that can better support clinical analysis, knowledge discovery and biomedical research.\u003Cbr\u003ESpecifically, this work develops methods to: (1) structure clinical data to facilitate knowledge discovery and downstream analysis, (2) improve the reliability of biomedical search by surfacing the most accurate and relevant matches, and (3) expand retrieval coverage to identify a broader set of relevant results in large-scale biomedical databases. Together, these contributions address complementary challenges in biomedical NLP and aim to make clinical and scientific information more accessible, reliable and useful for research and decision support.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Advancing Biomedical Research through Robust Knowledge Extraction and Retrieval "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:34:23","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 21:35:32","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-18T12:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-18T14:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-18T14:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-18 17:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-18 19:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-18 19:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 3115, Whitaker","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693374":{"#nid":"693374","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exam - Michael Boateng","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EScalable Optimization Methods for AC Feasibility Restoration of DC Power Flow-based Dispatch\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Van Hentenryck, Advisor\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Molzahn, Co-Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Meliopoulos, Chair\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Crozier\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe objective of the proposed research is to develop scalable optimization and learning methods that restore AC feasibility in power system operations while preserving the computational advantages of the DC optimal power flow (DCOPF)\u2192AC power flow (ACPF) pipeline. Although DCOPF is widely used in power system operations and planning due to its computational efficiency, its simplified representation of network physics can produce dispatches that violate the nonlinear AC power-flow equations or associated operational limits. To address these limitations, this research develops loss-aware DC formulations, structured AC power-flow restoration methods, and differentiable control policies for distributed slack and PV\/PQ regulation. The research further extends these approaches toward end-to-end optimization and security-constrained operation. Together, these methods aim to bridge computationally efficient DC-based optimization with the physical requirements of reliable AC grid operation.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Scalable Optimization Methods for AC Feasibility Restoration of DC Power Flow-based Dispatch"}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-10-21 22:00:54","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 20:19:22","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-16T13:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-16T15:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-16T15:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-16 18:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-16 20:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-16 20:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room W218, Van Leer","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"434371","name":"ECE Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exams"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"102851","name":"Phd proposal"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693784":{"#nid":"693784","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exam - Nicholas Garber","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDesign and Analysis of Three-Dimensional Cavities for Beamforming Antenna Arrays\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Peterson, Advisor\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Yao, Chair\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Durgin\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe objective of the proposed research is to extend the traditional Rotman lens beamformer concept to three dimensions to enable wideband beam scanning in planar antenna arrays. The target frequency range is 4\u201312 GHz, covering the C-band and X-band. Because beamforming cavity designs cannot achieve more than four exact focal points, numerical optimization will be used to develop designs based on approximate focal points. The approach will be further enhanced by incorporating phase-correcting structures within the beamforming cavities. The goal is to improve existing wideband feed systems for planar array antennas capable of generating multiple simultaneous beams.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Design and Analysis of Three-Dimensional Cavities for Beamforming Antenna Arrays"}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-11-04 20:10:44","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 20:12:19","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-18T10:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-18T12:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-18T12:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-18 15:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-18 17:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-18 17:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Classroom 024, D.M. Smith building","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"434371","name":"ECE Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exams"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"102851","name":"Phd proposal"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693633":{"#nid":"693633","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exam - Ritik Raj","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EWorkload-Aware Hardware-Software Co-Design for Efficient Agentic AI on Heterogeneous CPU-Accelerator Systems\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Krishna, Advisor\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Mahajan, Chair\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Hao\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Huang\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Wang\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe objective of the proposed research is to improve the end-to-end efficiency of agentic AI systems through workload-aware hardware\u2013software co-design. These systems combine large language model (LLM) inference on accelerators with tool execution on CPUs. CPU processing can dominate tool-intensive workloads, while LLM-intensive workloads introduce challenges in model routing, load balancing, and memory management. For LLM-intensive agents, ORACLE uses task-specific verification and asynchronous feedback to improve model selection. Its scheduler accounts for KV cache capacity and balances the benefit of shorter waiting times against potential losses in accuracy. For tool-intensive agents, OneDSE uses workload information to predict CPU configurations and simulation feedback to guide further search, reducing the number of evaluations needed for design exploration. The thesis also presents a cycle-accurate simulator for exploring accelerator designs, along with dataflow optimizations that reduce memory traffic in symbolic reasoning. The proposed research further investigates mixed-precision acceleration based on each model\u2019s role in an agentic program and joint routing and scheduling for model pools that change with the workload. Together, these efforts aim to improve performance and resource utilization across heterogeneous CPU\u2013accelerator platforms by coordinating hardware capabilities with the computational and memory demands of agentic execution.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Workload-Aware Hardware-Software Co-Design for Efficient Agentic AI on Heterogeneous CPU-Accelerator Systems"}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-10-29 19:23:50","changed_gmt":"2026-10-29 19:25:57","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-18T10:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-18T12:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-18T12:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-18 15:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-18 17:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-18 17:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Online","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/meet\/2608173521748671?p=CXSU5Ba8adeIe4Nuo3","title":"Microsoft Teams Link "}],"groups":[{"id":"434371","name":"ECE Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exams"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"102851","name":"Phd proposal"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}