Farhad Merchant

Dr. Farhad Merchant is an Assistant Professor of Innovative Computer Architecture at the Bernoulli Institute, University of Groningen, since July 2024. Previously, he served as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Newcastle University (2022–2024) and held research roles at Bosch Research, NTU, and RWTH Aachen University. His research focuses on emerging technology-based computing and hardware-oriented security, including neuromorphic architectures, in-memory computing, and secure hardware design.

Education: PhD in Electronics Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, with a DAAD-funded visit to RWTH Aachen University. He also holds industry experience from Bosch Research.

Research Interests:
- Hardware Security
- Neuromorphic Computing
- Algorithm-Architecture Co-design
- Reconfigurable Computing
- Computer Arithmetic

Projects:
- Coordinator for the REACT project (2025–2029): Focuses on self-aware neuromorphic architectures.
- Principal Investigator for Privacy-Preserving Computer Architectures (CogniGron, 2025–2029).
- Completed BioNanoLock project (DFG-funded, focusing on bio-nanoelectronic security).

Awards:
- Best Paper Awards at ISQED 2022, NEWCAS 2023, and VLSI-DAT 2024.
- Minerva Fellowship (Technion, Israel), HiPEAC Technology Transfer Award (2019).

He co-founded the SeHAS workshop (since 2019) and serves on editorial and program committees for major conferences like DAC, ISLPED, and VLSI-SoC.