Lab Members
Joshua Kalyanapu – Ph.D. Student
Email: jkalyan AT ncsu DOT edu
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
Email: aghanba2 AT ncsu DOT edu
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
Email: fdizani AT ncsu DOT edu
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.
Farzad Mehri – Ph.D. Student
Email: fmehri AT ncsu DOT edu
Farzad joined the lab as a PhD student in Computer Engineering in fall 2023. He has received his bachelor’s and master’s degree from University of Tehran in Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering. His interests span across topics of computer architecture, artificial general intelligence and embedded systems. He is currently focused on development of secure, high performance microarchitecture inspired by the current advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
Vincent Abraham – Master’s Student
Email: vabraha AT ncsu DOT edu
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.
Sai Praneeth Madduri – Intern
Email: smaddur AT ncsu DOT edu
Sai Praneeth holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from NC State (Fall 2023). He is interested in exploring the intersection of microarchitectural performance and security. Beyond his technical interests, he finds joy in exploring new places through travel and hiking adventures.
Anant Patel – Undergraduate
Email: apatel29 AT ncsu DOT edu
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
Email: fyaman AT ncsu DOT edu
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
Email: smirbag AT ncsu DOT edu
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
Email: rostam AT ncsu DOT edu
The official Mascot of BRAIN SPEC. He is the highest ranking member of the lab.