Brandon M. Lucia

Brandon M. Lucia is the Kavčić-Moura Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and CEO/co-founder of Efficient Computer Company. He leads the Abstract research group and focuses his work on the intersection of computer architecture, systems, and programming languages.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington (2013) — advised by Luis Ceze

Research Focus:

Brandon's research is broadly centered on intermittent computing, edge computing, and energy-efficient architectures. Two major thrusts define his current work:

• Intermittent Computing: Making battery-free, energy-harvesting devices programmable and reliable despite frequent power failures. Applications include medical implants, space systems, and large-scale sensing.
• Orbital Edge Computing: Designing nanosatellite constellations that perform on-orbit data processing, enabling low-latency, high-resolution sensing in space-constrained environments.

Scientific Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2017)
• IEEE TCCA Young Computer Architect Award (2019)
• Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2021)
• ASPLOS 2020 Best Paper Award
• OOPSLA 2015 Distinguished Paper & Artifact Awards
• IEEE Micro Top Picks (2016, 2018 Honorable Mention)

Advising & Grants:

Brandon actively advises a strong cohort of Ph.D. students including Zhuo Cheng, Bradley Denby, Souradip Ghosh, Harsh Desai, Kiwan Maeng, Emily Ruppel, and others. His group is funded by the NSF (CAREER and SHF grants), the Sloan Foundation, and industry partnerships.

Labs & Teams:

He directs the Abstract research group at CMU ECE, which hosts interdisciplinary projects spanning hardware design, compiler construction, and system software for ultra-low-power and space-borne computing platforms.