CRNCH Brings Together Researchers Across Computing at Annual Summit

The Center for Research Into Novel Computing Hierarchies (CRNCH) hosts its third summit on Jan. 31.

This annual gathering has become one of the top forums to discuss the future of computing after Moore’s law, the past industry-wide trend of doubling transistors in a microchip nearly every two years that exponentially fueled computing innovation. Now dozens of experts will meet to discuss computing’s new frontier from the perspective of diverse areas including devices, edge computing, computer architecture, systems software, machine learning, quantum computing, and theory.

“The CRNCH Summit is an exciting opportunity for Georgia Tech researchers and our visitors to share their latest breakthrough ideas for post-Moore computing,” said CRNCH Co-Director Vivek Sarkar.  “We look forward to a productive meeting, and all the great research that will follow.”

This year’s keynote is on computer architecture by David Mountain, the senior technical director at Advanced Computing Systems Research Program. Other leaders in their field follow, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory AI Institute Director David Womble, Notre Dame Professor Peter Kogge, National Instruments Academic Business Development Manager Igor Alvarado, Northrop Grumman System Architect Brian Konigsburg, and GTRI Quantum Systems Division Senior Research Scientist Craig Clark.

The event is also a chance for Georgia Tech faculty to showcase their research. School of Computer Science (SCS) Associate Professor Ada Gavrilovska discusses edge computing possibilities. SCS Professor Dana Randall offers emergent computation as a possibility. SCS Associate Professor Hyesoon Kim presents heterogeneous computing systems. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professors Arijit Raychowdhury and Moin Qureshi bring their perspectives on future devices and quantum computers.

The event highlights how CRNCH’s influence spans the entire institute with more than 30 dedicated faculty members from the College of Computing, the College of Engineering, the College of Sciences, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. With their expertise in quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, design science, approximate computing, and more, CRNCH’s team is uniquely qualified to tackle the challenges of computing’s future. Since it was founded in 2017 by Co-director Tom Conte, the center has paired researchers with funding, students with internships, companies with research labs on campus to test their leading-edge products, and even started a collection of specialized hardware called the Rogues Gallery (RG).

The RG has supported close to 75 users with a quarter coming from external labs and institutions. In 2019, co-directors Jason Riedy and Jeff Young also ran external tutorials at the ASPLOS and PEARC conferences and presented RG-related work at multiple venues including SIAM CSE, PEARC, and ICRC. Looking forward, Young expects more challenging projects.

 “In 2020, the Rogues Gallery will see the deployment of additional hardware focused on Arm high-performance computing as well as new neuromorphic prototypes and support for quantum programming” he said. “We’re looking to support a more diverse set of research hardware as well as a more inclusive userbase to tackle the toughest challenges in post-Moore computing”