About Me

Hi! I'm a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), co-advised by Prof. Mingu Kang and Prof. Tajana Rosing. I received a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from Korea University in February 2022.

My research interests include HW/SW co-design for AI accelerators and architectures, digital and mixed-signal chip design with a processing-in-memory (PIM), and optimization for large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and neuromorphic computing. I work on the end-to-end flow for AI architecture & processor design, from ML optimization to Chip fabrication.

I was honored with the UCSD Best Doctoral Research Award (2025), the Korean Honor Scholarship (2025), and selected for the Samsung Electronics Global Talent Ph.D. Fellowship (2023).

Education

UCSD

University of California, San Diego

Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science and Engineering

2022.09 - Present | GPA: 3.93/4.0

Korea University

Korea University

Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering

2016.03 - 2022.02 | GPA: 4.17/4.5 (Major GPA: 4.43/4.5)

Work Experience

TSMC

TSMC Technology, Inc

AI Hardware Research Intern | San Jose, USA

2024.06 - 2024.09

Circuit and architecture co-design for softmax optimization in Large Language Model.

SEE Lab

System Energy Efficiency LAB

Graduate Student Researcher | UC San Diego

2023.01 - Present

AI Processor design for hyperdimensional computing, few-shot learning, and ReRAM in-memory computing. Chip fabricated in TSMC N40 (one digital, and one mixed signal), including front-end (RTL design) and back-end (floorplanning, place & route, and gds2)

VVIP Lab

Vertically-integrated VLSI Information Processing LAB

Graduate Student Researcher | UC San Diego

2022.09 - Present

AI Processor design for large language model, and decision tree (XGBoost). Digital chip fabricated in TSMC N65, including ML optimization, front-end (RTL design), and back-end (floorplanning, place & route, and gds2)

Skills

Circuit Design Tools

Model SimDesign VisioniverilogVirtuosoGenusInnovusXceliumPspiceDesign CompilerVCS

Languages

VerilogSystem VerilogPythonPytorchCC++MATLAB

Publications (* co-first author)

Cross-Domain Acceleration of Open Modification Search: From Commodity Platforms to Emerging Memory and Storage Devices

S. Pinge*, C. E. Song*, et al., T. Rosing, and M. Kang

IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems (JETCAS)•Under review

FSL-HDnn: A 40 nm Few-shot On-Device Learning Accelerator with Integrated Feature Extraction and Hyperdimensional Computing

W. Xu*, C. E. Song*, H. Yang, L. Liu, M. F. Chang, C. H. Diaz, M. Kang, and T. Rosing

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC)•Under review

A 4D Radar Accelerator with Adaptive Sparse Processing for Real-Time Object Detection

S. E. Kim, C. E. Song, B. Kang, M. Sojan, O. Sathe, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)•2026To Appear

8-Layer Vertical Filament-Free Bulk RRAM with High Dynamic Range and Energy Efficiency for 3D Multilevel Compute-in-Memory

Y. Zhou, Y. Zhou, A. Kumar, W. Xu, C. E. Song, et al., T. Rosing, and D. Kuzum

IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM)•2025To Appear

Energy-efficient Reconfigurable XGBoost Inference Accelerator with Modular Unit Trees via Selective Node Execution and Data Movement

C. E. Song, Y. Li, A. Ramnani, P. Agrawal, P. Agrawal, S. Jang, S. Lee, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC)•2025Published

Clo-HDnn: Continual On-Device Learning Accelerator with Hyperdimensional Computing via Progressive Search

C. E. Song, W. Xu, K. Fan, S. Jain, G. Hota, H. Yang, L. Liu, M. F. Chang, C. H. Diaz, G. Cauwenberghs, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

IEEE Hot Chips Symposium (HCS)•2025Published

Clo-HDnn: A 4.66 TFLOPS/W and 3.78 TOPS/W Continual On-Device Learning Accelerator with Energy-efficient Hyperdimensional Computing via Progressive Search

C. E. Song*, W. Xu*, K. Fan, S. Jain, G. Hota, H. Yang, L. Liu, K. Akarvardar, M. F. Chang, C. H. Diaz, G. Cauwenberghs, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits (VLSI)•2025Published

Hybrid SLC-MLC RRAM Mixed-Signal Processing-in-Memory Architecture for Transformer Acceleration via Gradient Redistribution

C. E. Song, P. Bhatnagar, Z. Xia, N. S. Kim, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA)•2025Published

FSL-HDnn: A 5.7 TOPS/W End-to-end Few-shot Learning Classifier Accelerator with Feature Extraction and Hyperdimensional Computing

H. Yang*, C. E. Song*, W. Xu, B. Khaleghi, U. Mallappa, M. Shah, K. Fan, M. Kang, and T. Rosing

IEEE European Solid-State Electronics Research Conference (ESSERC)•2024Published

Efficient Transformer Acceleration via Reconfiguration for Encoder and Decoder Models and Sparsity-Aware Algorithm Mapping

C. E. Song*, A. Moradifirouzabadi*, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED)•2024Published

52.5 TOPS/W 1.7GHz Reconfigurable XGBoost Inference Accelerator based on Modular-Unit-Tree with Dynamic Data and Compute Gating

C. E. Song, Y. Li, A. Ramnani, P. Agrawal, P. Agrawal, S. Jang, S. Lee, T. Rosing, and M. Kang

IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)•2024Published

Patents

C. E. Song, “Three-dimensional flash memory with back gate”, US11688462B2, United States

2023

C. E. Song, “Method and System for Providing Virtual Reality Space”, 10-2020-0019618, Republic of Korea

2020

Honors & Awards

IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Student Travel Grant Award (STGA)

Dec, 2025

Korean Honor Scholarship (KHS), Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the USA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea)

Sep, 2025

Best Doctoral Research Award, Computer Science and Engineering, UCSD

Jun, 2025

ISCA Student Travel Grant Award

Jun, 2025

Samsung Electronics Global Talent Ph.D. Fellowship, Samsung Electronics Memory Division Solution

Oct. 2023

Hackers Family Scholarship, 21st Hackers Bridge Scholarship

Jun. 2022

Fund Scholarship, College of Engineering: Apple & San Francisco Alumni Association of Korea University

Feb. 2022

Seongnam Scholarships, Seongnam City Scholarship Association

Mar. 2021

Dean's List on 2nd Semester of 2020, Korea University

Feb. 2021

Semester High Honors at School of Engineering, Korea University

2021, 2020, 2017

Top-honor Scholarships at School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University

2021, 2020, 2017, 2016

Chip Gallery

XGBoost Accelerator

XGBoost Accelerator

TSMC N65 (CICC'24, JSSC'25)

FSL-HDnn Accelerator

FSL-HDnn Accelerator

TSMC N40 (ESSERC'24)

HD + ReRAM Accelerator

HD (Clo-HDnn) + ReRAM

TSMC N40 (VLSI'25, Hot Chips'25)