Lab Members

Under Construction

This newly founded lab is preparing its content. Please revisit us soon for fresh updates. Thank you for your interest in our lab.

Joshua Kalyanapu – Ph.D. Student

Joshua Kalyanapu is a Ph.D student in Computer Engineering. Joining NC State in Fall 2021, he received his bachelor’s degree in Spring 2021 from Iowa State University double majoring in Computer Engineering and Mathematics. His research interests include formal methods, side-channel attack and defense, and ML accelerators.

Azam Ghanbari – Ph.D. Student

Azam, currently a Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering, joined North Carolina State University in Fall 2023. Prior to this, she earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from University of Tehran, Iran, majoring in Computer Engineering – Computer Architecture, in 2017 and 2020 respectively. Her research focuses primarily on side-channel attack and defense, parallel computing, and Machine Learning accelerators.

Farshad Dizani – Ph.D. Student

Farshad is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering. He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Tehran. His keen interest lies in the areas of computer architecture, communication, artificial intelligence, and embedded systems. At present, his research focuses on microarchitectural vulnerabilities and performance optimization in modern processors.

Darsh Asher – Ph.D. Student

Darsh is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering. He holds a bachelor’s  from University of Mumbai and a master’s degree in Computer  Engineering from NC State University. His research interests include designing secure and efficient solutions against Microarchitectural attacks, and also in the domains of cryptography & machine learning. In his free time, he likes to work on endurance building activities like running, biking and swimming, or keep up with the general news, sports and history.

Vincent Abraham – Master’s Student

Vincent is a Master’s student, majoring in Computer Engineering and is always interested in exploring novel areas in the field of microprocessor architecture. His research primarily includes leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning tools to improve the single-core performance of modern processors.

Kaushal Mhapsekar- Master’s Student

Kaushal is currently pursuing a Master’s in Computer Engineering. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from BITS Pilani, India. Passionate about innovation, his research interests span Machine Learning, Computer Architecture, and Embedded Systems. Currently, Kaushal is deeply focused on developing cutting-edge, Generative AI-driven solutions to tackle the Cache Replacement Problem, aiming to significantly enhance CPU performance.

 

Asmita Malakar – Undergraduate 

I am Asmita Malakar, an undergardaute student at NC State University pursuing a bachelor’s dual degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.In my spare time, I am very involved in volunteering on campus. Currently, my research interests focus on using machine learning models to identify bottlenecks in my system architectures and improve performance efficiency.

Meghana Ponnapati – Undergraduate 

Hi, my name is Meghana! I’m an undergraduate sophomore at NCSU majoring in Computer Engineering. These past couple months, I’ve been focused on measuring energy and time consumption during different operations and have been learning more about microarchitecture, and hardware in general. In my free time, I enjoy working out, hanging out with my friends, or going for walks.

Anant Patel – Undergraduate

Hey! I am Anant Patel and I’m an undergraduate junior at NCSU majoring in Computer Science! I am doing the ABM program at NCSU and obtaining my Master’s once I graduate with my Bachelor’s. I like to learn about cool new things in Computer Science and always improve at what I do! In my free time, I like to play video games, play sports, talk to friends, procrastinate, and improve my coding skills.

Ferhat Yaman – Past Student

Farhat graduated in Fall 2023. He is currently a Security Researcher at AMD R&D team in Boston.

Ferhat’s Thesis: AgentSCA: Advanced Physical Side Channel Analysis Agent with LLM

Samira Mirbagher Ajorpaz – Lab Director

I am Samira, an Assistant Professor leading the BRAIN SPEC research lab within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at NC State University. Beyond my role in the ECE department, I serve as a Computer Science faculty member and a core faculty at the Secure Computing Institute (SCI) at NC State. My academic journey included a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego’s Computer Science and Engineering Department, following a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University (2019) and a Bachelors of Computer and Electrical Engineering from the University of Isfahan, Iran.  My research melds computer architecture, systems security, and machine learning, emphasizing efficient and secure microarchitectural designs and refining machine learning models for hardware. Notably, my work has influenced the newer CPU designs. I also often serve as organizing and program committees in industry track and academic of renowned conferences such as HPCA, ASPLOS, MICRO, ISCA and recently I’ve been on MICRO Top Picks and ACM CCS PCs.  Outside of academia, I am an avid chess player and coach, with a history as youth Chess champion for several years as a kid. Additionally, I have achieved the ranking #1 on chess.com on multiple occasions which is not very hard to achieve but is a testament to my joy in this fascinating game.

Mr. Rostam – Lab Mascot

The official Mascot of BRAIN SPEC. He is the highest ranking member of the lab.