EDUCATION

• PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2003
• MS, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2000
• BS, Pennsylvania State University, 1998

Research Areas

We study the design and fabrication of nanostructures as applied specifically to the fabrication of future computing systems: devices-to-computer architecture. The term 'nanocomputing' or 'molecular computing' has come to refer to the many challenges that face computer organization and architecture as conventional top-down fabrication techniques (e.g., photolithography) begin to create devices with dimensions near the molecular scale. Defect-prone transistors and interconnect and a changing collection of technological constraints require changes in the way we design and build computer systems. DNA self-assembly is a bottom-up fabrication technique that can be used to achieve molecular scale resolution. The goal is to use these structures to integrate active nanoelectronic devices into a fully self-assembled circuit technology - and to study the new forms of computer architecture that the technology enables. To do this we have adopted a broad and vertical research approach to cover topics in the synthesis and design of DNA nanostructures, nanoscale device and circuit modeling, and studies of emerging computer architectures.