Farimah Farahmandi named a top innovator in DAC’s Under 40 Innovator Awards

Farimah Farahmandi, Assistant Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida, is one of five recipients of the 2024 Under-40 Innovator Award from the Design Automation Conference (DAC).

DAC is the largest industry event devoted to electronic computer-aided design. The award recognizes the top five young innovators who have made a significant impact in the field of electronics design and automation. Young innovators are redefining and shaping the future of the design automation field in industry, research labs, start-ups and academia, and DAC recognizes the best and brightest. Each year, the Design Automation Conference names the top five young, global innovators in the field of electronic design automation. One June 23rd, Farahmandi became one of the top researchers selected to receive the award. 

Farahmandi’s cutting-edge research has earned her a reputation as a dedicated, influential researcher in the hardware security community. She is widely recognized for her work. Her research program thrives, focused on hardware security verification and validation, by extending it to AI-based approaches to ensure the security in microelectronics in pre and post fabrication stages. She is globally known for her pioneering research in the field of security verification. Her research will establish security, safety, and reliability of system-on-chips (SoCs) and system-in-packages (SiPs) deployed to modern critical industrial and DoD applications. 

Farahmandi Named Walden C. Rhines Endowed Professor for Hardware Security

Dr. Farimah Farahmandi, ECE Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Florida Institute for Cybersecurity (FICS) at the University of Florida, has been named as the inaugural Walden C. Rhines Endowed Professor for Hardware Security. She is the first ever Associate Professor that has been bestowed with this distinction. The endowment will support Dr. Farahmandi’s research program, focused on hardware security verification and validation, by extending it to AI-based approaches to ensuring the security in microelectronics in pre and post fabrication stages. She is globally known for her pioneering research in the field of security verification. Her research will result in establishing security, safety, and reliability of system-on-chips (SoCs) and system-in-packages (SiPs) deployed to modern critical industrial and DoD applications. 

Dr. Walden Rhines, who is continuing his father’s philosophy that “outstanding people want to work with other outstanding people,” created this endowment to support Dr. Farahmandi’s research and to support the department’s vision of growing security and trust in modern microelectronics that impacts our everyday’s life. Dr. Mark Tehranipoor, ECE Department Chair states, “Receiving such a prestigious endowment at this early part of her career, while usually this endowment is reserved for much more senior faculty in the college, speaks highly of the accomplishments made by Dr. Farahmandi. She is an innovator, leader, and outstanding collaborator to many in the college and in the community.” 

Dr. Rhines is currently the President and CEO of Cornami, Inc., a fabless software/semiconductor company focused on intelligent computing for fully homomorphic encryption and machine learning. He was previously CEO of Mentor Graphics for 25 years and Chairman of the Board for 17 years. During his tenure at Mentor, revenue nearly quadrupled and market value of the company increased 10X.

Prior to joining Mentor Graphics, Dr. Rhines was Executive Vice President, Semiconductor Group, responsible for Texas Instruments’ (TI) worldwide semiconductor business. During his 21 years at TI, he was President of the Data Systems Group, held numerous semiconductor executive management positions and was directly responsible for the creation and growth of the digital signal processing business which eventually comprised about 50% of TI’s total revenue.

Dr. Rhines holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, a master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and Honorary Doctor of Technology degrees from the University of Florida and Nottingham Trent University.

Dr. Rhines grew up in Gainesville, and despite his many years elsewhere, his heart remains firmly rooted in Gainesville. Dr. Rhines’ father, Frederick Rhines, was the founder of UF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His love of Gainesville is evidenced by the support which the Rhines Foundation provides the University of Florida.

FARAHMANDI RECEIVES “EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR ASSISTANT PROFESSORS in College of Engineering and University Level

At the Herbert Wertheim College Of Engineering Faculty and Staff awards luncheon held recently, Farahmandi was recognized with the honor of receiving the “Excellence Award for Assistant Professors.” Excellence Awards for Assistant Professors or is a one-time allocation in support of research. This award is conferred upon an Assistant Professor whose research performance during the year demonstrates remarkable achievement in research and other scholarly and creative activities at the highest level.

FARAHMANDI RECEIVES NSF CAREER AWARD FOR AI-ASSISTED SECURITY VERIFICATION FRAMEWORK

Yangbin Wang Rising Star Endowed Assistant Professor Farimah Farahmandi has received an NSF CAREER award in support of her project “SAIF: Security Assurance through AI and Formal Approaches for System-on-Chips.” The project seeks to enhance the safety and security of microelectronics by creating an innovative AI-assisted security verification framework for modern complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices.

Integrated circuits are critical components in many vital electronic devices and systems, including those used in financial services, military and defense applications, healthcare systems, and business operations. Such circuits are subject to an ever-growing number of security vulnerabilities and attacks due to their complex functionality, increased interactions among numerous functional blocks, and connectivity to the internet.

Dr. Farahmandi’s SAIF framework aims to address these vulnerabilities in a number of ways. The AI-assisted framework seeks to provide high verification coverage while dramatically reducing the time required to verify the integrity of micro devices like SOCs. By taking humans out of the process and leveraging the power of AI, the SAIF framework is able to lower security verification time by orders of magnitude while providing scalability of circuit complexity. SAIF provides computer chip design and verification engineers with properties and tools to check for security vulnerabilities before fabrication and the system promises to be extremely adaptable as new attack surfaces and modalities are discovered.

This project will integrate research and educational activities by developing a modified curriculum/syllabus for high schoolers, workforce development, minority recruiting, training/workshops for K-12 and undergraduate students, and disseminating research results through publications, seminars, tutorials, and panels.

FARAHMANDI WORKS TO OPTIMIZE CHIP LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

Yangbin Wang Rising Star Endowed Assistant Professor Farimah Farahmandi has received funding from the Office of Naval Research in support of her project “Optimized System Design for Assurance and Life-cycle Management (SaLEM).” The objective of the $498K project is to develop a sustainable and security-aware life-cycle management solution, called SALeM, that monitors the run-time behaviors and silicon status of microelectronic devices. The team will also develop novel designs for upgradable hardware, meaning that the design can be altered and enhanced during runtime.

SaLEM is a first-of-its-kind optimized system designed for assurance and lifecycle management. It is intended to address key sustainability and security concerns in semiconductor manufacturing while enhancing device sustainability and mitigating e-waste issues. A key feature of the SALeM system is fine-grained monitoring to enable run-time security monitoring and in-field upgrades. The monitoring is accomplished by distributed monitoring agents, essentially sensors embedded in the hardware. The monitoring agents collect and report data (e.g., aging status) from chiplets which is then transmitted to a reconfigurable fabric, an embedded FPGA (eFPGA), for further analysis. The sensors provide meticulous observability in security-critical areas, while reconfigurable hardware-based controllers offer adaptability in deploying dynamic security policies against sophisticated attacks like zero-day threats. This detailed level of data monitoring and communication will enable the recovery of systems in the field and over-the-air hardware security updates, greatly enhancing overall device security, reducing the frequency of device replacement, and enabling device reuse.

By focusing on reducing device replacement frequency, extending device lifespan, and enabling device reuse for diverse applications, SALeM aims to mitigate sustainability challenges and supply chain disruptions. The methodology shows great potential for semiconductor manufacturing, highlighting a strategy for the integration of advanced monitoring capabilities into future products.

Dr. Farahmandi’s SaLEM project continues her work in the national security space by creating trustworthy and sustainable electronics for secure and reliable hardware used in military and naval systems, the aerospace industry, financial systems, and automobile systems. Both semiconductor manufacturing companies and OEM companies stand to benefit from this research.