Baris Kasikci

Baris Kasikci is an Associate Professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Previously (2017-2023), he was a Morris Wellman Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on building efficient and trustworthy computer systems through innovative combinations of approaches from systems, computer architecture, and programming languages.

Dr. Kasikci received his PhD in Computer Science at EPFL and has held research positions at Microsoft Research Cambridge, Google, Intel, and VMware. His work addresses critical challenges in system reliability, security, and performance in increasingly complex software ecosystems.

His research interests center on improving the efficiency of datacenter applications and machine learning systems, analyzing and fixing failures, and enhancing hardware security. His lab develops techniques for automated bug detection, formal verification of distributed systems, and building systems support for heterogeneous hardware architectures. Recent projects include Whisper (profile-guided branch misprediction elimination), Huron (taming false sharing), and Agamotto (automatic detection and repair of bugs in persistent memory applications).

Analysis of his recent publications shows a strong trend toward optimizing large language model serving, hardware security, and performance optimization for modern heterogeneous architectures. His work bridges traditional systems research with emerging AI infrastructure needs, particularly in efficient LLM serving, security vulnerabilities in modern hardware, and performance optimization for heterogeneous computing environments.

• NSF CAREER award
• Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship
• Intel Rising Star Award
• VMware Early Career Faculty Grant
• Google Faculty Award
• Roger Needham PhD Award (best PhD thesis in computer systems in Europe)
• Patrick Denantes Memorial Prize (best PhD thesis at EPFL)
• Best Paper Award at OSDI'18
• Best Paper Award at MICRO'22

Dr. Kasikci has advised numerous PhD students who have gone on to prestigious positions in academia and industry, including Tanvir Ahmed Khan (Assistant Professor at Columbia University), Akshitha Sriraman (Assistant Professor at CMU), and Jiacheng Ma (AMD). His research has been supported by significant grants from NSF, DARPA, Intel, Google, Microsoft, VMware, and Amazon. His lab, the EfesLab, focuses on building tools and techniques that make computer systems more reliable, secure, and efficient.

The EfesLab, led by Dr. Kasikci, brings together postdocs, PhD students, and undergraduate researchers to tackle fundamental challenges in systems reliability and performance. The lab has developed numerous influential tools including Whisper, Huron, and Agamotto that address critical performance and reliability issues in modern computing systems. Current research directions include efficient LLM serving, security of emerging hardware technologies, and automated debugging techniques.