ECE DLS: Valeria Bertacco “Beyond AI: Societal Opportunities for Future Hardware Design”

Professor Valeria Bertacco, University of Michigan

Title: Beyond AI: Societal Opportunities for Future Hardware Design

Abstract: Computing hardware has long been a critical component in the advancement of technology. Most recently, we’ve witnessed an explosive progression in the capabilities and applications of AI, enabled in large part by AI hardware acceleration. Looking beyond the potential benefits of AI acceleration, what else can future hardware designs contribute to benefit society? In this talk, I’ll propose three emerging areas of research that are poised to have a significant impact on our world: hardware enforcement of data privacy, novel system designs to tame and exploit the data flood, and new paradigms of sustainable computing.

Bio: Valeria Bertacco is the Mary Lou Dorf Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, and Adjunct Professor of Computer Engineering at the Addis Ababa Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in the area of computer design, with emphasis on specialized architecture solutions and design viability, in particular reliability, validation, and hardware-security assurance. Her research endeavors are supported by the Applications Driving Architectures (ADA) Research Center, which Valeria directs. The ADA Center, sponsored by a consortium of semiconductor companies, has the goal of reigniting computing systems design and innovation for the 2030-2040s decades, through specialized heterogeneity, domain-specific language abstractions and new silicon devices that show benefit to applications.

Valeria joined the University of Michigan in 2003, where she currently serves as the Vice Provost for Engaged Learning, supporting all co-curricular engagements and international partnerships for the institution, and facilitating the work of several central units, whose goals range from promoting environmental sustainability, to the promotion of the arts in research universities, and to increasing the participation of gender minorities in the academy.