Brandon Lucia

Brandon Lucia is a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering. He leads the abstract research group focusing on the intersection of computer architecture, systems, and programming languages. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations in energy-constrained environments.

Lucia's research centers on intermittent computing systems and edge computing in extreme environments. His work on energy-harvesting systems has established fundamental principles for batteryless computing, while his orbital edge computing research pioneers computational intelligence for nanosatellite constellations. These research thrusts address critical challenges in reliability, efficiency, and programmability for systems operating under severe power constraints.

His publication record shows a clear evolution from foundational work on intermittent computing models to sophisticated applications in space computing and edge intelligence. Recent publications demonstrate increasing integration of dataflow architectures with energy-harvesting constraints, particularly in satellite constellations where computational resources must be managed across distributed, power-constrained platforms operating in extreme environments.

• NSF CAREER Award (2017)
• IEEE TCCA Young Computer Architect Award (2019)
• Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2021)
• ASPLOS Best Paper Awards (2018, 2020)
• OOPSLA Distinguished Paper and Artifact Awards (2015)

Lucia actively mentors numerous PhD students including Brad Denby, Zhuo Cheng, and Emily Ruppel, many of whom contribute significantly to his research program. His abstract research group maintains strong industry connections while pursuing fundamental advances in computing systems. The group has developed multiple open-source tools including Legerdemain for program analysis and MultiCacheSim for cache coherence simulation.

His laboratory work spans from theoretical foundations of intermittent computing to practical implementations in space systems. Current projects include computational nanosatellite constellations, energy-minimal dataflow architectures, and secure edge computing systems that operate reliably despite frequent power failures.