About

I recently joined the University of Cambridge as an Assistant Professor (called a "University Lecturer" in the UK) in the Department of Engineering. I lead the Physical Computation Lab.

Past

Prior to joining Cambridge in 2017, I was a researcher in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, in the group of Martin Rinard.

Prior to joining MIT in 2014, I was with the Core OS organization at Apple (2012–2014). At Apple I led the development of new system components for iOS,  macOS, and watchOS that enable on-device prediction. The work was in collaboration with a brilliant group of people, and is captured in seven patent applications (with several more in the pipeline) for technologies in Apple products.

Prior to Apple, I spent several years (2008–2012) as a permanent research staff member ("RSM") at IBM Research in Zürich, Switzerland. At IBM ZRL, I was with the Systems department, and focused on solving problems relating to the interplay between semiconductor device technology and algorithm properties. I initiated the ExaBounds project to develop "better-than-back-of-the-envolope" tools for estimating performance, power, reliability, and cost of large-scale computing systems. I also contributed to shipping tools for an MPI accelerator for the Power7 processor. Parts of my work at IBM are reflected in conference and journal publications, and other parts in five US patent applications / five granted US patents assigned to IBM (and corresponding EU and China patents/filings).

I completed my Ph.D. at CMU in 2007 in the lovely city of Pittsburgh, but spent 2006–2008 at TU/e in the even lovelier city of Eindhoven.

Before graduate school, I spent several summers as an intern at Bell Labs. At Bell Labs, I first spent two summers (1995, 1996) in the Microelectronics division with a group that designed ASICs for telephony applications. I then spent an extended co-op in the Lucent Bell Labs Data Networking division (1999), in a project spun out of the UNIX group, doing work with the Inferno Operating System.

I spent the summer of 2005 at NEC Laboratories in Princeton.

Languages

English (native), Dutch (intermediate), German (level A2.2–B1.2), French (beginner). I'm an alumnus of the Regina Coeli Language Institute.