I am an incoming professor at MIT in the EECS department where I will lead the Flame Lab. My goal is to build systems that democratize the design and use of specialized hardware. I am excited to work with folks who are dissatisfied with the current state of tools and techniques for hardware design. I am interested in radically new approaches that combine ideas from programming languages, computer architecture, VLSI, and computer-aided design to address the design, verification, and usability challenges of specialized hardware. In doing so, I want to build real systems, evaluate them rigorously, and get other people to use them.

My PhD research has produced three systems:

  • Calyx: A compiler infrastructure for compiling high-level languages to efficient circuits. Calyx has been adopted by the LLVM CIRCT project and is the basis for several academic and research tools.
  • Filament: a new hardware description language that uses a novel type system to guarantee correctness of pipeline composition. Filament’s ideas have influenced the design of Google’s XLS system and Jane Street’s HardCaml language.
  • Dahlia: A high-level language for predictable accelerator generation. Dahlia demonstrated how type systems can connect high-level abstractions with circuit-level constraints.

I am actively recruiting PhD students! If my work resonates with you, please read the instructions on applying to my lab.

News

Jun ’24

Accepted a tenure-track position at MIT and starting in the 2025-26 academic year!

Jun ’24

Our paper on unifying static and dynamic abstractions in Calyx was conditionally accepted at OOPSLA 2024.

Mar ’24

Gave invited talks on Modular Abstractions for Hardware Design at UC Berkeley, Brown, Northeastern, University of Washington, MIT, and Columbia.

Jun ’23

Presented Filament at PLDI 2023.

Apr ’23

Gave an invited talk on Dahlia at MIT’s PL Review.

Publications

Conferences

Workshop & Short Papers

SNAPL  ’17

Posts

Sep ’23
GitHub-centric Research Management
PhD student is an issue triager
Sep ’23
Your Eternal Spark
I don't have words to put here
Aug ’23
Transpiler, a meaningless word
PhD Student fights the good fight
Jul ’23
The Stateless Manager
PhD student is not forgetful; just sage
Sep ’22
Why Study Programming Languages
PhD candidate proselytizes
Aug ’22
Lies Academics Believe
PhD candidate looks into a mirror
Jan ’22
Dear Sir, You Have Built a Compiler
Sweetly addressed to those who did not want to build a compiler