Communications

Computer Engineering

 
Computer
Systems

VLSI & Design
Automation

Networking

Software &
Machine
Intelligence

Electromagnetics

Electronics

Power

Systems & Controls

Biomedical Engineering

ECE Ph.D.s

ECE Patents

The research activities in this area encompass the design, modeling, testing, and analysis of computational machines at all levels. This includes logic gates, integrated circuits, systems-on-a-chip (SoC), micro-architectures, and network architectures. There is particular emphasis on reliability and testability of digital hardware, computer-aided design (CAD) for VLSI and high-performance SoC, design methodology for embedded systems, low-power design, and the particular needs of next-generation wireless communications. New work is beginning in the area of bio-microelectronic sensor devices.

Research groups:

• CESCA - Center for Embedded Systems in Critical Applications
• FERMAT - Formal Engineering Research with Models, Abstraction, and Transformations Laboratory
• PROACTIVE - Proactive Research on Advanced Computer Aided Testing, Verification, and Power Management Techniques
• VTVT - Virginia Tech VLSI for Telecommunications

Recent news items regarding VLSI & Design Automation:

• New center established for large-scale distributed embedded systems (April 2004)
• New Defect-Tolerant Architectures Needed For Rampant Unreliability in Nanotechnology (Winter 2004) (April 2004)
• CPEs Creating Efficiency Tools For Design, Testing, Verification (Winter 2004) (April 2004)
• Embedded Systems:Boosting the Productivity of Embedded Systems Designers (April 2003), (Feb. 2003)
• FPGA System Can Accelerate Multi-Physics Modeling x 1,000,000 (April 2003)
• Software Program Identifies Hidden Errors, Defects For Testing, Verification of System-on-a-Chip Design (April 2003)
• Low Power Coding for Videoconferencing (April 2003)

Faculty Members Conducting Research in VLSI & Design Automation

Research Groups & Laboratories

Center for Embedded Systems in Critical Applications (CESCA website)

The multidisciplinary center develops enabling technologies to support distributed decision-making among hundreds or thousands of networked computing nodes. Applications in health-care, environmental monitoring, transportation, and business are the main focus of the Center.

Formal Engineering Research with Models Abstraction, and Transformations Laboratory (FERMAT website)

Investigating issues concerning embedded system design methodology, verification, low-power design of embedded systems, high level modeling and synthesis, and CAD.

Proactive Research on Advanced Computer-Aided Testing, Verification, and Power Management Techniques (PROACTIVE website)

Research at PROACTIVE focuses on state-of-the-art CAD algorithms for automatic testing, verification, and power management of large, high-performance system-on-a-chip (SOCs) and VLSI circuits.

Virginia Tech VLSI for Telecommunications (VTVT website)

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The main focus of VTVT Group is low-power VLSI system design for next generation wireless communications. The group conducts research in low-power VLSI system design, and VLSI testing.