Benjamin Carrison-Schafer

Benjamin Carrison-Schafer is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Success at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas. He leads the Design Automation and Reconfigurable Computing Laboratory (DARClab), focusing on systems, high-level design, and programming methodologies for VLSI computing systems and FPGAs.

Education:
MBA from McGill University, Canada (2012)
PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Birmingham, UK (2003)

Research Interests:
His work spans modeling, analysis, synthesis, optimization, and implementation of VLSI systems. Current projects include: Approximate Computing, High-Level Synthesis Design Space Exploration, Hardware Security, Behavioral MPSoC Optimization, and Automatic Fault-Tolerant System Generation. His research blends theory and practice, using analytical and experimental techniques to solve real-world problems.

Publication Trends:
Recent publications demonstrate strong focus on hardware security, FPGA optimization, and automated design methodologies. Key themes include High-Level Synthesis innovations, hardware acceleration techniques, and cross-disciplinary applications of reconfigurable computing. His work frequently addresses challenges in hardware trustworthiness, energy efficiency, and design automation scalability.

Professional Activities:

• Associate Editor: IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing (2022-present)
• Conference Chair: ICCD 2024, DCAS 2024
• Program Committee: ASP-DAC, DATE, FCCM, GLSVLSI

Advising & Labs:
Supervises multiple PhD and Master's students at DARClab. Current research includes domain-specific architecture design, hardware security, sustainable computing, and ML for VLSI design. The lab collaborates with industry partners like Renesas Electronics and develops commercial tools through spin-off company highX Technologies.