Heterogeneous Computing with Nanoscale Architectures for Bio Applications

Mary Mehrnoosh Eshaghian-Wilner
Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering, UCLA

Abstract: Heterogeneous computing is a special form of parallel and distributed computing that could be applied to different levels of a diverse computing organization. My 1996 book “Heterogeneous Computing” presented heterogeneous computing at two levels: network level and system level. Here, I’ll present a third level, architecture level, to which heterogeneous computing can also be applied. In architecture-level heterogeneous computing, the diversity is in the underlying technologies that are used at the chip level. For example, the chips may be multi-scale with both nano and MEMS components, and/or may operate with both analog and digital signals, and/or may employ both electrical and optical interconnects, and/or may use both classical and quantum computations. Research in architecture-level heterogeneous computing is very new and poses many challenging problems. To demonstrate the types of complexities involved in solving problems on such chips, I will present a set of bioinformatics algorithms using the new spin-wave nanoscale architectural modules that my collaborators and I have recently developed at UCLA. The significance of the new spin-wave designs is that the communication between the nodes can be done in constant time, which is a noteworthy improvement over the Ω(log N) lower-bound on the time delay to implement such networks in VLSI using traditional electrical interconnects. In these architectures, unlike traditional spin-based architectures that transmit charge, the information is encoded into the phase of spin waves. As a result of this, the presented nanoscale designs may have low power consumption and can operate at room temperature.

 

Biography: Mary Mehrnoosh Eshaghian-Wilner received her B.S. degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering (1985), M.S. degree in Computer Engineering (1985), her Engineers degree in Electrical Engineering (1988), and her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering (1988), all from the University of Southern California. Dr. Eshaghian-Wilner currently is an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to joining UCLA, she was a full Professor and Department Head at the Computer Engineering Department of Rochester Institute of Technology. Professor Eshaghian-Wilner has over twenty years of research experience in various areas within the field of Parallel Architectures and Algorithms. She is best known for her pioneering contributions to two areas of Optical Computing and Heterogeneous Computing. In recent years, Dr. Eshaghian-Wilner has been focusing on the bio and nano applications of her work. She leads the BioNIC (Bio-inspired and Nanoscale Integrated Computing) research group at UCLA. Professor Eshaghian-Wilner has founded and/or chaired numerous IEEE conferences and organizations, including the IEEE Women in Engineering affinity division of Los Angeles. She is the recipient of several IEEE and NSF awards. Additional information about Professor Eshaghian-Wilner can be found on her website at the URL address: www.seas.ucla.edu/~eshaghia.