Mario Roberto Casu

Mario Roberto Casu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications (DET) at the Polytechnic University of Turin, where he also serves as a contact person for the Degree Course in Electronic Engineering. He is a member of the Interdepartmental Center SmartData@PoliTO - Big Data and Data Science Laboratory and actively contributes to the VLSILAB research group.

Dr. Casu received his laurea degree summa cum laude in electronics engineering and his Ph.D. in electronics and communications engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1998 and 2001, respectively. He has held visiting researcher positions at Columbia University (2010-2011), National University of Singapore (2017), and CEA Grenoble (2001), as well as a visiting professorship at Chongqing Technology and Business University (2016).

His research spans several interconnected domains focused on hardware implementation of advanced computing systems. Dr. Casu's work primarily addresses Embedded Machine Learning through heterogeneous embedded systems (ASICs, FPGAs, CPUs, GPUs), System-on-Chip design including latency-insensitive approaches and Network-on-Chip architectures, Microwave Imaging for both biomedical (breast cancer and stroke detection) and industrial applications (food contamination detection), and Ultra-Wide Band technologies for biomedical applications. His research bridges theoretical design methodologies with practical industrial applications across biomedical, automotive, and food sectors.

Dr. Casu's recent scholarly output demonstrates a clear trajectory toward optimizing hardware implementations for machine learning workloads, particularly through FPGA-based solutions and precision-scalable multipliers. His work increasingly integrates microwave sensing technologies with machine learning for specialized applications like food contaminant detection, while maintaining strong foundations in traditional VLSI design and system-level optimization techniques.

As an academic leader, Dr. Casu serves on the editorial board of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AGRIFOOD ELECTRONICS and regularly participates in program committees for major international conferences including DATE, ICCAD, DAC, and VLSI-SoC. He has been involved in 9 national academic research projects (2 as principal investigator), 2 European academic research projects, and 7 national and international industrial projects (2 as principal investigator).

Dr. Casu actively mentors the next generation of engineers, currently supervising multiple PhD students including Lorenzo Lagostina, Edward Manca, Teodoro Urso, Fabrizio Ottati, and Luca Urbinati. His teaching portfolio includes courses such as Integrated Systems Technology, Microelectronics Digital Design, and Embedded Electronic Systems for AI/ML across both bachelor's and master's programs in Electronic and Computer Engineering.

His laboratory work centers around the VLSILAB Group at DET, where his team develops innovative solutions in hardware acceleration for machine learning, microwave imaging systems, and system-level design methodologies. Current projects include the EU-funded GreenChips-EDU initiative for sustainable microelectronics education and industry collaborations with companies like Infineon Technologies on coarse-grained reconfigurable array architectures for machine learning applications.