Massoud Pedram () (born in Ahvaz) is an

Iranian American Iranian-Americans, also known as Persian-Americans, are Americans, United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian peoples, Iranian ancestry, or who hold Iranian Multiple citizenship, citizenship. Most Iranian-Americans arrived in the U ...

computer engineer noted for his research in

green computing Green computing, green IT (Information Technology), or Information and Communication Technology Sustainability, is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing or IT. The goals of green computing include optimising energy ef ...

, energy storage systems,

low-power electronics Low-power electronics are electronics designed to consume less electrical power than usual, often at some expense. For example, notebook processors usually consume less power than their desktop counterparts, at the expense of computer perform ...

and design,

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...

and

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

. In the early 1990s, Pedram pioneered an approach to designing VLSI circuits that considered physical effects during

logic synthesis In computer engineering, logic synthesis is a process by which an abstract specification of desired circuit behavior, typically at register transfer level (RTL), is turned into a design implementation in terms of logic gates, typically by a co ...

. He named this approach layout-driven logic synthesis, which was subsequently called physical synthesis and incorporated into the standard EDA design flows. Pedram's early work on this subject became a significant

prior art Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the novelty and the inventive step or non-obviousness criteria f ...

reference in a litigation between Synopsys Inc. and

Magma Design Automation Magma Design Automation was a software company in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. The company was founded in 1997 and maintained headquarters in San Jose, California, with facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Ma ...

Biography

Massoud Pedram was born in

Ahvaz Ahvaz (; ) is a city in the Central District of Ahvaz County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is home to Persians, Arabs and other groups such as Qashqai and Kurds. Languages spok ...

Khuzestan Khuzestan province () is one of the 31 Provinces of Iran. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of . Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. He came to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to continue his higher education in 1983. He received a B.S. degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1986 and

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees in

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

s ( EECS) from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1989 and 1991, respectively. The EECS department of

, listed him as one of her distinguished alumni. Pedram then joined the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering in

Viterbi School of Engineering The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm. ...

of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, where he is currently the Stephen and Etta Varra Professor. Some of his doctoral students, including Diana Marculescu, Radu Marculescu and Payam Heydari have become notable academics.

Professional services

Pedram has served on the technical program committee of a number of conferences, including the

Design Automation Conference The Design Automation Conference (DAC - The chips to systems conference) is an annual event that combines a technical conference with a trade show. It focuses on semiconductor and electronic system design, covering topics such as electronic desig ...

(DAC), Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE), Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC),

International Conference on Computer-Aided Design The International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD) is a yearly conference about electronic design automation. From the start in 1982 until 2014 the conference was held in San Jose, California. It is sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and S ...

(ICCAD), and International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis (CODES+ISSS). He served as the technical program chair and the general chair of the 2002 and 2003

International Symposium on Physical Design The International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD) is a yearly conference on the topic of electronic design automation, concentrating on algorithms for the physical design of integrated circuits. It is typically held in April of each year, in a ...

(ISPD) and the general chair of the 2007 International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED). He served as the inaugural

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

(EiC) of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

''Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems'' (JETCAS). He also served as the EiC of the ''ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems'' (TODAES). Pedram served as the

IEEE Circuits and Systems Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

Vice President (Publications) in 2006. Pedram co-founded and served as the general co-chair of the first ACM International Workshop on Low Power Design in 1994. When this workshop merged with the

Workshop on Low Power Electronics in 1996, Pedram served as a co-founder and the technical co-chair of the first International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED). Pedram has been on the

advisory board An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to the ...

of several companies, including Atrenta Inc., Envis Corp, and

Awards

Pedram's awards and recognition have included: * US

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

's Research Initiation Award (RIA) in 1992 * Young Investigator Award (NYI) in 1994 *

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

(

PECASE The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages ...

) in 1996 *

Fellow "for contributions to the theory and practice of low-power design and CAD" since 2001 * ACM Distinguished Scientist since 2008 * IEEE CAS Charles A. Desoer Technical Achievement Award "for contributions to modeling and design of low power VLSI circuits and systems, and energy efficient computing" in 2015 Additionally, Pedram was an ACM Distinguished Speaker. He has been granted 10 US patents. He was one of ten principal investigators from

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in the

who were selected by

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

to fund for th
Power Efficiency Revolution for Embedded Computing Technologies (PERFECT)
program.

Publications

Pedram has published four books, 13 book chapters, and more than 560 journal and conference papers. According to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

, his research have been cited more than 17,800 times till 2015. His publications have received a number of awards including two DAC Best Paper Awards, a Distinguished Paper Citation from ICCAD, three ICCD Best Paper Awards, two IEEE Transactions Best Paper Awards, and an ISLPED best paper award. At the 50th anniversary of the

held in 2013, Pedram was recognized as one of the four DAC Prolific Authors (with 50+ papers) and the DAC Bronze Cited Author.

Books

* * * *

References

External links

EPFLTV - EPFL video portal- SMART ENERGY DAY
Massoud Pedram gives a talk on "Energy Efficient Enterprise Computing and Green Data Centers" at EPFL {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedram, Massoud Living people University of Southern California faculty Fellows of the IEEE Electronic design automation people UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni California Institute of Technology alumni People from Ahvaz Iranian emigrants to the United States Iranian expatriate academics Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers 2023 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery