Jiaqi Gu

Jiaqi Gu is an Assistant Professor at the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University. His work bridges photonics, quantum computing, and machine learning to develop next-generation hardware for efficient computing.

• PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin (2023)

His research focuses on emerging hardware design (photonics, post-CMOS electronics, quantum), hardware-algorithm co-design, AI/ML algorithms, and electronic-photonic design automation. He explores how photonic and quantum systems can be optimized for AI workloads, with recent work on differentiable photonic simulation, compact optical neurons, and quantum component placement tools.

His publications include 20+ papers in 2025 on topics like photonic tensor cores, optical neural networks, and quantum-aware design. Key trends: integrating machine learning with photonic device simulation, optimizing photonic circuits for adversarial robustness, and advancing quantum computer compilation.

Scientific awards include:

• Best Paper at ASP-DAC 2020
• Best Poster at NSF Workshop on Machine Learning Hardware 2020
• Margarida Jacome Dissertation Prize 2023
• Outstanding Dissertation Award 2024

Dr. Gu advises students through EEE 490/590/790 courses and leads the ScopeX research group, which develops tools for photonic and quantum hardware design.