News

Isaac Bilsel – MWC Chapter Scholar
1st Year Scholar, PhD candidate

Electrical & Computer Engineering
George Washington University

Research: 
To accelerate graph neural network inference, my work analyzes communication bottlenecks arising from high-degree graph vertices and introduces a novel on-chip network to efficiently support their collective communication patterns.

How Will Your Research Benefit Society?
As machine learning models develop to process more and more data, traditional general-purpose hardware is failing to keep up, causing excess energy consumption with devastating environmental and economic impacts. Graph neural networks (GNNs) have shown transformative results for a variety of applications, such as molecular modeling, traffic forecasting, and social network analysis. However, these models have seen limited real-world implementation due to their energy and latency demands. The development of AI accelerators can reduce global energy consumption and allow for GNNs to be implemented on various smart devices to improve productivity.

How Will an ARCS Award Benefit Your Research?
The ARCS award would be primarily used for attending conferences to gain insight into modern trends and interact with experts in computer architecture. These conferences are essential to gaining a sound understanding of the state of current research. Additionally, because this field is rapidly changing, conference papers are generally valued more than publications in journals or books.

Career Objectives: 
In the future, I hope to work in a research and design-oriented role in ASIC hardware development. My aim is to develop low energy solutions for processing machine learning workloads in order to reduce the growing environmental impact of modern data-driven applications.

Community Service, Contributions to DEI, Volunteer Work: 
Outside of my academic work, I have been a volunteer in The Outreach Program for Soccer (TOPSoccer) for over six years. I provide one-on-one coaching (in soccer or related outdoor activities) for children with special needs.