Sam Pagliarini

Sam Pagliarini is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he leads research in hardware security and trustworthy integrated circuit design. Prior to joining CMU in 2024, he directed the Centre for Hardware Security at Tallinn University of Technology (2019–2023). He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Télécom Paris (France, 2013), an M.S. in Microelectronics from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil, 2011), and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the same institution (2008).

His research focuses on securing hardware design pipelines, including EDA tools for secure chips, countermeasures against hardware trojans, and obfuscation techniques to protect intellectual property. He has pioneered work on reconfigurable-based obfuscation (ReBO), layout-effect-based security mechanisms, and post-quantum cryptographic accelerators. Recent efforts include collaborations on post-quantum cryptography vulnerabilities and silicon demonstrations of hardware trojan insertion methods.

Prof. Pagliarini's work spans academia and industry, with contributions to both theoretical frameworks (e.g., SCARF framework for chip security) and applied solutions like the G-GPU ASIC accelerator generator. His research has addressed emerging threats in the IC supply chain and explored trade-offs between security, performance, and design complexity in post-silicon manufacturing.