{"id":21,"date":"2024-02-03T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:03:17","slug":"members","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/?page_id=21","title":{"rendered":"Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Lab Director<\/h2>\n
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\n \"Samira\n <\/figure>\n
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Samira Mirbagher Ajorpaz <\/h3>\n

Email: smirbag AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 on organizing and program committees in industry track and academic conferences such as HPCA, ASPLOS, MICRO, ISCA and recently I’ve been on MICRO Top Picks and ACM CCS PCs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n \n

Current Students<\/h2>\n
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\n \"Joshua\n <\/figure>\n
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Joshua Kalyanapu \u2013 Ph.D. Student<\/h3>\n

Email: jkalyan AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n

\n
\n \"Azam\n <\/figure>\n
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Azam Ghanbari \u2013 Ph.D. Student<\/h3>\n

Email: aghanba2 AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 Computer Architecture.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n

\n
\n \"Farshad\n <\/figure>\n
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Farshad Dizani \u2013 Ph.D. Student<\/h3>\n

Email: fdizani AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

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 research focuses on microarchitectural vulnerabilities and performance optimization.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n

\n
\n \"Darsh\n <\/figure>\n
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Darsh Asher \u2013 Ph.D. Student<\/h3>\n

Email: dkasher AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

Darsh is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering. He holds a bachelor’s from University of Mumbai and a master’s degree from NC State University. His research interests include secure microarchitectural design, cryptography, and machine learning.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n

\n
\n \"Kaushal\n <\/figure>\n
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Kaushal Mhapsekar \u2013 Ph.D. Student<\/h3>\n

Email: kmhapse AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

Kaushal is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Computer Engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – Goa Campus, and a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from NC State University. His research focuses on generative AI-driven cache replacement policy design & analysis, hardware fuzzing, and CPU performance optimization.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n

\n
\n \"Bita\n <\/figure>\n
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Bita Aslrousta \u2013 Ph.D. Student<\/h3>\n

Email: baslrou AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

Bita started pursuing her Ph.D. in Fall 2025. Her research interests include brain-inspired microarchitectural optimization and CPU cache replacement policies.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

Lab Mascot<\/h2>\n
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\n
\n \"Mr.\n <\/figure>\n
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Mr. Rostam <\/h3>\n

The official Mascot of BRAIN SPEC. He is the highest ranking member of the lab.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n

Past Students<\/h2>\n
\n\n\n
\n
\n \"Ferhat\n <\/figure>\n
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Ferhat Yaman <\/h3>\n

Email: fyaman AT ncsu DOT edu<\/p>\n

Farhat graduated in Fall 2023. He is currently a Security Researcher at AMD R&D team in Boston.<\/p>\n

Ferhat’s Thesis:<\/strong> AgentSCA: Advanced Physical Side Channel Analysis Agent with LLM<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lab Director Samira Mirbagher Ajorpaz 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387,"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ece.ncsu.edu\/brainspec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}