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Our

Mission

Women in Computer Architecture (WICARCH) is designed to create a community for women studying and working in the field of computer architecture. Our goal is to promote women in computer architecture and increase visibility for their research and development contributions. We welcome participation from all women including students, post docs, industry researchers and developers and faculty members. To be listed in our directory, please click here.

Profiles of WICArch

The mission of this section is to profile women in computer architecture across many walks of our field, from [junior, senior] x [industry, academia].

If you would like to be profiled, would like to nominate someone to be profiled, or would like to write a profile, please let us know by wicarch-chair@acm.org

Mengjia Yan

by Lisa Hsu on February 5, 2020

Dr. Mengjia Yan is undoubtedly one of the most delightful people you will ever meet – smart, positive, exceedingly wise beyond her years, and the kind of person who can turn a frown upside down.  She was paired with me as a mentee at ISCA 2018, but I genuinely think that it is I who have benefited from the relationship.  These days, she is a new assistant professor at MIT, having recently completed her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019.

Read more...

WICArch Directory

We actively maintain a list of women working in the field of computer architecture.  The goal of this list is many-fold.  First, the list services as a resource for program chairs and conference organizers to identify women to serve in key technical roles such as keynote, panels and program committees.  Second, the list is designed to foster community and help women connect with other women in computer architecture.  This list can be used by current and potential graduate students to find advisors and mentors. Four profiles, selected randomly, are shown below.  We encourage you to browse the full directory.

Picture of Narges Shahidi

Narges Shahidi

Software Engineer
Google
Personal URL

Research Statement

I recently graduated from Penn State University. My research at Penn State was focused on memory and storage architecture. I worked on NAND flash solid state drives on cloud and enterprise environments. I also did an internship at Memory Solution Lab in Samsung Semiconductor where I worked on open channel solutions for SSD storage architectures. I am now a Software Engineer at Google platform team working on system drivers for cloud storages.

Interests

Processor, Memory, and Storage Systems Architecture
Picture of Helena Caminal

Helena Caminal

Ph.D. student
Cornell University
Personal URL

Research Statement

Helena Caminal is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Computer Systems Lab at Cornell University, advised by Prof. José F. Martínez. She is generally interested in computer architecture and systems, with a focus on processing-in-memory.

Interests

Accelerator-Based, Application-Specific and Reconfigurable Architecture, Architecture For Emerging Technologies and Applications, Processor, Memory, and Storage Systems Architecture
Picture of Sophia Shao

Sophia Shao

Assistant Professor
UC Berkeley
Personal URL

Research Statement

I am an Assistant Professor and an SK Hynix Faculty Fellow at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department of University of California, Berkeley. My research interests are in the area of computer architecture, with a special focus on specialized accelerator, heterogeneous architecture, and agile VLSI design methodology. Previously, I was a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA Research and received my Ph.D. degree in 2016 from Harvard University.

My work has been awarded a Distinguished Artifact Award at ISCA 2023, the Best Paper Award at DAC 2021, the Best Paper Award at JSSC 2020, a Best Paper Award at MICRO 2019, Top Picks in Computer Architecture (2014), and Honorable Mentions (2019*2). My Ph.D. dissertation was nominated by Harvard for ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award. I am an SK Hynix Faculty Fellow and a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, the 2022 IEEE TCCA Young Computer Architect Award, a Google Faculty Rising Stars Award in Systems Research, a Google Research Scholar Award, a Facebook Research Award, an Okawa Foundation Research Grant, and the inaugural Dr. Sudhakar Yalamanchili Award.

Interests

Accelerator-Based, Application-Specific and Reconfigurable Architecture, Evaluation and Measurement Of Real Systems
Picture of Tanvi

Tanvi

Grad Student
Purdue University
Personal URL

Research Statement

I am a PhD student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. I received my Bachelors (2018) in Electronics and Communication Engineering (with honors) from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. I was a recipient of the IITR Heritage Excellence Award, INSA-NASI-IASc Summer Research Fellowship, and ENCORE Scholarship Award for outstanding performance in academics and curricular during my time at IIT Roorkee. Subsequently, I worked for Texas Instruments for one year on standard cell design and methodologies in collaboration in EDA team. I joined my PhD program in Fall 2019 and since have been a part of Nanoelectronics Research Lab. My research interests include computer architecture, hardware accelerators for Machine Learning applications using emerging technologies, and design of processing in/near memory based architectures. In my free time, I like to play badminton, dance, go for running, or listen to music.

Interests

Architecture For Emerging Technologies and Applications, Architecture Modeling and Simulation Methodologies, Effects Of Circuits Or Technology On Architecture, Processor, Memory, and Storage Systems Architecture

Full Directory // List Yourself // Update Profile

We regularly organize a social gathering of women at the start of major architecture conferences (ISCA, HPCA, ASPLOS and MICRO).  These meet ups help newcomers to our conferences become better integrated in the community and reduce some of the pressure and intimidation they might feel at their first conference.  They provide great networking opportunities.  We hope to see you at the next one!
Would you like to attend a SIGARCH-sponsored event, but cannot because the cost of child-care is prohibitive? SIGARCH provides funds for a limited number of grants that support child care for members that would like to participate in a SIGARCH-sponsored event but are unable to do so without this support. SIGARCH provides financial assistance to subsidize a variety of child-care options. View details here.
Annually, we provide a brochure of upcoming female graduates in computer architecture. The goal of this brochure is to bring greater visibility to women on the job market and to celebrate their success as PhD students.

2018-2019 Candidates
2019 Candidates

Check out our WICARCH YouTube channel which features recorded technical talks by members of the WICARCH community.

Initiatives

We organize various initiatives to better connect women in computer architecture.

Join Our Mailing List

Our mailing list is maintained through ACM.  You can join in 3 easy steps:

1. Join SIGARCH/SIGMICRO (you don’t need to be a full ACM member — you can join a SIG only which is pretty cheap!)

SIGARCH   |   SIGMICRO

2. Update your gender in your myACM account (create/activate account as needed)

Student members: if you log into myACM, you should see a “My Student Profile” on the left menu.  This is where you can specify gender.
Professional members: if you log into myACM, you should see a “My Professional and Technical Interest Profile” on the left menu you.  This is where you can specify gender.
3. Accept to receive emails from ACM:
In myACM, under “My Contact Information”, “Email Policy”, “Current preference” should have the box “Please send me ACM Announcements via email” checked.

Join Our Slack Channel

We offer an informal mentoring program through our slack channel (wicarch.slack.com).  Women at all career stages are encouraged to join.  The mentoring program provides an easy way to connect with other women and receive advice on a wide range of career and personal issues.

If you need assistance in joining our mailing list or slack channel, please send email to wicarch-chair@acm.org.

This website serves women in the field of computer architecture.
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