Ishan Thakkar

Ishan Thakkar is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky, leading the Unconventional Computing Architectures and Technologies (UCAT) Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.

Education: Ph.D./M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Colorado State University (2013–2018).

Research Focus: Design of energy-efficient computing systems leveraging photonic interconnects, neuromorphic architectures, in-memory computing, and emerging materials. Key areas include silicon photonics, optical neural networks, and sustainable hardware accelerators.

Recent Articles: Focus on photonic-based accelerators, stochastic computing in DRAM, neuromorphic systems with nanomagnets, and security in optical architectures.

• Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2024), Best Paper Awards at GLSVLSI/ISVLSI, Robley D. Evans Fellowship.
• Grants: NSF CCF grants for electro-photonic systems, DOE funding for neuromorphic computing.

Lab & Collaborations: UCAT Lab focuses on cross-layer design of photonic circuits and emerging memory technologies. Collaborates with Argonne National Lab and Brookhaven National Lab.