Purdue ECE alumnus wins ACM Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award
An alumnus of Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering is the recipient of the 2021 ACM/SIGDA Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award. Ahmedullah Aziz earned his Ph.D. from Purdue ECE in 2019.
Aziz’s dissertation is entitled “Device-Circuit Co-Design Employing Phase Transition Materials for Low Power Electronics.” Phase transition materials (PTM) have garnered immense interest in concurrent post-CMOS electronics, due to their unique properties such as - electrically driven abrupt resistance switching, hysteresis, and high selectivity. The phase transitions can be attributed to diverse material-specific phenomena, including- correlated electrons, filamentary ion diffusion, and dimerization. In Aziz’s research, he explores the application space for these materials through extensive device-circuit co-design and propose new ideas harnessing their unique electrical properties.
The goal of the ACM/SIGDA Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award is to encourage innovative, ground-breaking research in the area of electronic design automation. The award is given annually to an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation that makes the most substantial contribution to the theory and/or application in the field of electronic design automation. The award consists of a certificate and a check for $1,000 and is presented at the Design Automation Conference. Recipients are selected by a committee of experts from academia and industry in the field and appointed by ACM in consultation with the SIGDA Chair.
Aziz is currently an Assistant Professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee. Prior to beginning his graduate studies, Aziz worked in the ‘Tizen Lab’ of Samsung R&D Institute in Bangladesh as a full-time Engineer, where he explored and prototyped innovative ideas for leading-edge electronics. He also worked as a Co-Op Engineer (Intern) in the Technology Research division of Global Foundries (Fab 8, NY, USA). Aziz’s research interests include mixed-signal VLSI circuits, non-volatile memory, and beyond CMOS device design.
Aziz has received several awards and accolades for his research, including the ‘Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award’ by European Design and Automation Association (2020), ‘Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award’ from College of Engineering, Purdue University (2019), and ‘Icon’ award from Samsung (2013). He was a co-recipient of two best publication awards from SRC-DARPA STARnet Center (2015, 2016) and best project award from CNSER (2013).