Massoud Pedram ( fa, مسعود پدرام) (born in babolsar) is an

Iranian American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busin ...

computer engineer noted for his research in

green computing Green computing, green IT, or ICT sustainability, is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing or IT. The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry: reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy effici ...

, energy storage systems, low-power electronics 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 Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

. In the early 1990s, Pedram pioneered an approach to designing

VLSI Very large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining millions or billions of MOS transistors onto a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when MOS integrated circuit (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) c ...

circuits that considered

physical effects A practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques. In some contexts, "special effect" is used as a synonym of "practical effect", in contrast to "visual effect ...

during logic synthesis. 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 reference in a litigation between Synopsys Inc. and

Magma Design Automation Magma headquarters at Santa Clara 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 througho ...

Biography

Massoud Pedram was born in Ahvaz,

Khuzestan Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. He came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to continue his higher education in 1983. He received a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

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

from the California Institute of Technology in 1986 and

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

degrees in

and

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

s ( EECS) from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

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 C ...

, where he is currently the Stephen and Etta Varra Professor. Some of his doctoral students, including Diana Marculescu, Radu Marculescu and

Payam Heydari Payam Heydari ( fa, پيام حيدرى) is an Iranian-American Professor who is noted for his contribution to the field of radio-frequency and millimeter-wave integrated circuits. Education Heydari attended Sharif University of Technology in T ...

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, or DAC, is an annual event, a combination of a technical conference and a trade show, both specializing in electronic design automation (EDA). DAC is the oldest and largest conference in EDA, started in 1964. ...

(DAC), Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE),

Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference The Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, or ASP-DAC is a yearly conference on the topic of electronic design automation. It is typically held in late January in the Far East, as the name implies. It is sponsored by the IEEE Cir ...

(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 1980 until 2014 the conference was held in San Jose, California. It is sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and ...

(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 (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 highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

(EiC) of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

''Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems'' (JETCAS). He also served as the

EiC EIC may refer to: Companies and organizations *East India Company, a major British company that once controlled major parts of the Indian subcontinent *East India Club * East India Comedy, an Indian comedy group * Edison Illuminating Company * ...

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 a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

Vice President (Publications) in 2006. Pedram co-founded and served as the general co-chair of the first

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

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 th ...

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

Awards

Pedram's awards and recognition have included: * US

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

's Research Initiation Award (RIA) in 1992 * Young Investigator Award (NYI) in 1994 * Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers ( PECASE) in 1996 *

Fellow "for contributions to the theory and practice of low-power design and CAD" since 2001 *

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 In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

from

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

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 Adv ...

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 scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

, 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 Fellow Members 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