Ryan Kastner is a renowned computer scientist and educator. For over two decades, he has dedicated his career to advancing computer architecture through innovative research and teaching the next generation of engineers. This article provides an overview of Ryan Kastner’s accomplishments and contributions to the field.
Early Life and Education
Ryan Kastner was born in 1977 in Illinois. From a young age, he showed a strong passion and aptitude for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). He attended Northwestern University where he double majored in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, graduating with his BS degrees in 1999.
Remaining at Northwestern, Kastner went on to earn his MSEE in 2000. He then enrolled in the Computer Science PhD program at UCLA where he conducted groundbreaking research in computer architecture under the guidance of professor Krste Asanovic. In 2002, Kastner completed his dissertation titled “Characterizing and Optimizing Multi-Mantissa Floating-Point Operations” and graduated with his PhD.
Academic Career and Research Contributions
Following graduation, Kastner joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. During his five years there, he established himself as an influential voice in the computer architecture community through his research and teaching.
Some of Kastner’s key contributions include:
- Developing new floating-point unit architectures optimized for energy efficiency. His work showed how to implement floating-point operations with multiple mantissas to reduce switching activity and power consumption.
- Proposing tiled chip multiprocessors with heterogeneous tiles to better match applications’ computational needs. This improved performance and energy efficiency compared to traditional uniform multicore designs.
- Authoring influential survey papers summarizing the state-of-the-art in computer architecture topics like accelerator-rich systems and near-threshold voltage design.
- Mentoring multiple PhD and Masters students whose theses advanced low-power architecture techniques.
In 2007, Kastner moved to the University of California, San Diego to join the prestigious Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He currently holds the title of Professor. At UCSD, he has expanded his research to new areas like 3D-stacked memory and processing-in-memory.
Kastner’s Research Group and Projects
At UCSD, Kastner heads the Architecture Research lab which has involved dozens of graduate students and postdocs over the years. Some of the projects pursued include:
- TRIPS Processor: A research project funded by DARPA to design an energy-efficient manycore processor supporting transactional memory and strong reliability features. The processor is implemented on an FPGA-based platform.
- 3D-MAPS: Focused on novel architecture techniques for 3D-stacked memory and processing-in-memory. The goal is to leverage emerging 3D integration technologies to improve performance and efficiency of diverse applications.
- Elastic CGRAs: Research into coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures that can dynamically adapt to different computation phases of an application. This improves flexibility and specialization compared to traditional GPUs.
- Approximate Computing: Exploring the potential of intentionally designed inexactness in computation to reduce energy consumption for applications that can tolerate some loss of precision like machine learning inferencing.
Through these ambitious projects, Kastner’s group has developed new computer architecture concepts, evaluation methodologies, and tools which are contributing to next-generation systems. He has also mentored over 30 graduate students many of whom now hold industry or academic positions.
Recognition and Professional Service
Ryan Kastner’s influential work has been recognized through numerous awards and invitations to serve the research community. Some highlights include:
- Elected to the ACM Fellowship for contributions to energy-efficient computer design and approximate computing.
- Recipient of the NSF CAREER Award early in his career for groundbreaking research.
- Designated as an IEEE Fellow for leadership and innovative work on low-power processor architectures.
- Serves on the editorial boards of top-tier journals like IEEE Micro, ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization.
- Program co-chair of prestigious conferences such as ISCA, ISLPED, and DAC.
- Member of steering committees for architecture-focused conferences and workshops.
- Frequent invited speaker at universities, companies, and government labs worldwide to share expertise.
Ryan Kastner’s extensive experience and accomplishments have established him as one of the preeminent figures in computer architecture today. Through his research vision and mentorship, he continues pushing the boundaries of efficient, resilient, and application-friendly system design.
Impact an Educator
In addition to performing pioneering research, Ryan Kastner is deeply committed to educating the next generation of computer engineers and scientists. At UCSD he teaches graduate-level courses on computer architecture fundamentals as well as advanced topics like multicore processors, 3D integration, and approximate computing.
Kastner’s teaching philosophy centers on exposing students to the complete design process – from problem formulation, to algorithm and microarchitecture development, performance modeling, implementation, and evaluation. He emphasizes hands-on projects using real simulation tools and FPGA platforms.
Students praise Kastner for making complex subjects accessible through clear lectures, supplemental study materials, and engagement. Under his direction, many students have won best paper awards at top venues for their thesis work advancing the state-of-the-art. His former pupils have moved on to faculty positions at top-20 universities and leadership roles in the tech industry.
Through his dedication to student success inside and outside the classroom, Ryan Kastner is leaving an indelible mark on computer engineering education. The innovative concepts and rigorous training he provides will surely influence technology for decades to come.
Industry Partnerships and Technology Transfer
While Kastner’s primary mission is academic research and teaching, he recognizes the importance of moving ideas from the lab into practical systems that can solve real-world problems. To this end, he has collaborated extensively with industry through sponsored projects, joint research, workshops, and graduate student internships.
Some examples include:
- Worked with Intel to explore future processor microarchitectures optimized for 3D chip stacking technologies.
- Partnered with Microsoft Research to develop novel architectures for machine learning training and inference on both cloud and edge devices.
- Consulted with NVIDIA to apply approximate computing concepts to graphics processing units to boost efficiency in autonomous driving workloads.
- Led a DARPA-funded multi-university project involving IBM, GlobalFoundries, and Synopsys to prototype the TRIPS manycore processor on a 90nm node.
Through these engagements, Kastner transfers his innovative ideas outside academia where they can spawn new technologies and startup ventures. He also gains valuable perspective on real application needs to refine future research directions. This balanced approach maximizes the societal impact of his group’s work.
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Summary
Over two decades, Ryan Kastner has established himself as a pioneering researcher, exemplary educator, and leader in computer architecture. Through groundbreaking contributions to low-power design, multicore optimization, 3D integration, and approximate computing – he is helping shape the future of efficient, resilient, and application-tailored computing systems.
Kastner’s visionary work and training of top students continue advancing the field from both theoretical and applied perspectives. His industrial partnerships effectively transfer concepts to technology that addresses real problems. As a respected voice, he also serves the research community through conference organization, editorial roles, and more.
Overall, Ryan Kastner’s vast contributions, from fundamental research to mentoring the next generation, cement his legacy as one of the foremost figures in computer architecture today and ensure his influence will be felt for years to come. He is leaving an indelible mark on both the discipline and the landscape of technology.
