Edge computing is becoming an essential concept covering multiple domains nowadays as our world becomes increasingly connected to enable the Internet of Things (IoT) concept. In addition, the new wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly complex Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models, is demanding new computing paradigms beyond traditional general-purpose computing to make IoT a viable reality in a sustainable world.
In this seminar, Prof. Atienza will discuss new approaches to effectively design the next generation of edge AI computing architectures by taking inspiration from how biological computing systems operate. In particular, these novel bioinspired edge AI architectures includes two key concepts. First, it exploits the idea of accepting computing inexactness and integrating multiple computing acceleration engines and low-power principles to create a new open-source eXtended and Heterogeneous Energy-Efficient hardware Platform (called x-HEEP). Second, x-HEEP can be instantiated for different application domains of edge AI to operate ensembles of neural networks to improve the ML/DL outputs' robustness at system level, while minimizing memory and computation resources for the target application. Overall, x-HEEP instantiations for edge AI applications included in-memory computing or run-time reconfigurable coarse-grained accelerators to minimize energy according to the required precision of the target application.
David Atienza is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and leads both the Embedded Systems Laboratory (ESL) and the new EcoCloud Sustainable Computing Center at EPFL, Switzerland. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from UCM (Spain) and IMEC (Belgium). His research interests include system-level design methodologies for high-performance multi-processor system-on-chip (MPSoC) and low-power Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems, including edge AI architectures for wearables and IoT systems as well as thermal-aware designs for MPSoCs and many-core servers. He is a co-author of more than 400 papers, two books, and has 14 licensed patents in these topics. He served as DATE General Chair and Program Chair, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of IEEE TCAD. Among others, Dr. Atienza has received the ICCAD 10-Year Retrospective Most Influential Paper Award, the DAC Under-40 Innovators Award, the IEEE TC-CPS Mid-Career Award, and the ACM SIGDA Outstanding Faculty Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of ACM, served as IEEE CEDA President (period 2018-2019), and he is currently the Chair of the European Design Automation Association (EDAA).