Director Heading
Director
Arman Roohi
Arman Roohi
Associate Professor
Arman Roohi is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, where he is the director of the Intelligent Device-2–Applications (IDEA) Laboratory. Before joining UIC, he was an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2020-2024) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin (2019-2020). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA, in 2019. His research interests span the areas of cross-layer co-design for implementing complex machine learning tasks and secure computation, including hardware security and the security of artificial intelligence, reconfigurable and adaptive computer architectures, and beyond CMOS computing, which has led over 100 publications.
Ph.D. Student
Ph.D. Student
Oluwaseun Adekola
Oluwaseun Adekola
Oluwaseun Adekola is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) from Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2022. His research interests lie at the intersection of Embedded Systems, TinyML, Edge AI, and Signal Processing, aiming to enhance Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). He is particularly interested in developing intelligent sensing systems and embedded AI-driven technologies that process real-world data with high efficiency and precision.
Hong Ding
Hong Ding
Hong Ding is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Illinois Chicago. He received his B.E. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Xiamen University Malaysia. His research interests focus on computer vision, visual computing, and brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing, as well as autonomous driving perception and intelligent systems, 3D scene understanding and generation, and vision–language multimodal learning.)
Omer Kurkutlu
Omer Kurkutlu
Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)
Omer Kurkutlu is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. He received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from University of Pune, India in 2021. His research interests include robotics, reinforcement learning, bio-inspired design and intermittent computing.
Ali Shafiee Sarvestani
Ali Shafiee Sarvestani
Research Assistant
Since (2025-present)
Ali Shafiee Sarvestani is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. He earned a master’s degree in Computer Systems Architecture from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2012, and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, in 2009.
Sepehr Tabrizchi
Sepehr Tabrizchi
Research Assistant
Since (2022-present)
Sepehr Tabrizchi is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. He received a master’s degree in computer systems architecture from Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran, in 2018 and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in computer engineering from the Azad University Najafabad Branch, Iran. His research interests include processing-in-memory (PIM), in-sensor computing, VLSI design, non-volatile memories, and brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing.
Research Scientist
Research Scientist
Rebati Raman Gaire
Rebati Raman Gaire
Research Assistant
Since (2022-2025)
Rebati Raman Gaire is currently a Master’s Student at the School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from IOE, Pulchowk Campus, Nepal, in 2021. His research interest includes Machine Learning and Computer Vision. At the iDEA lab, he is researching on optimization of computation models for efficient deployment on edge devices.
Completed M.S. Graduates
Completed M.S. Graduates
Samuele Pasquale
Samuele Pasquale
Teacher Assistant
Since (2024-present)
Samuele Pasquale is a Master’s student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, enrolled in a dual degree program between the University of Illinois at Chicago (USA) and Politecnico di Torino (Italy), with a focus on embedded systems. His areas of interest include embedded systems, microprocessor architecture, EDA tools, digital design, and firmware programming. He conducts research focusing on implementing intermittent-robust computing on RISC-V architecture. Samuele is passionate about digital hardware design and bridging the gap between hardware and software.
Master's Student
Master’s Student
Samin Sohrabi
Samin Sohrabi
Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)
Samin Sohrabi is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. She received her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, minoring Electronics, from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2023. Her research interests include Intermittent computing, Wireless sensors and Machine learning applications.
Neeraj Solanki
Neeraj Solanki
Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)
Neeraj Solanki is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), USA. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology WPU, Pune, India, in 2021. His research interests lie in Machine Learning and enhancing security using machine learning techniques. Neeraj is also working on projects related to image reconstruction and GANs for security applications.
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Ramy Gharib
Ramy Gharib
Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)
Ramy Gharib is currently an undergraduate student in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, graduating in 2026. His research interests span AI hardware acceleration, embedded and intermittent computing, and energy-efficient neural network deployment on resource-constrained architectures.
Shayan Gerami
Shayan Gerami
Research Assistant
Since (2025-present)
Shayan Gerami is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor’s in Information and Decision Sciences and in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago, graduating in Spring 2026. His interests include data science, machine learning, and cybersecurity. He is actively involved in projects integrating embedded hardware with lightweight machine learning pipelines. Beyond academics, Shayan enjoys traveling and staying active through fitness and outdoor activities.
Jason Schmidt
Jason Schmidt
Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)
Jason Schmidt is an undergraduate research assistant pursuing a Bachelor’s in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago, graduating in Spring 2026. His research focuses on lightweight neural networks, particularly on optimizing energy efficiency through techniques like quantization-aware training and adaptive early exits. Beyond his academic work, Jason is passionate about machine learning, data engineering, and enjoys studying Arabic, traveling, and following European football.
Completed REU
Completed REU
Ricardo Canovas
Ricardo Canovas
Research Assistant
Since(June 2022-Aug 2022)
Ricardo Canovas is heading into his last year of college at California State University, San Bernardino, in computer engineering. His interest research area is hardware with programming implementations, specifically, programming in FPGAs, especially on neural networks.