Rob A. Rutenbar

Rob A. Rutenbar is the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Pittsburgh and holds Distinguished Professorships in Computer Science (School of Computing and Information) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (Swanson School of Engineering). He also serves as Adjunct Professor at UIUC and CMU. With nearly 40 years in academia and industry, his research focuses on integrated circuit tools, nanoscale chip design statistics, and AI hardware accelerators. He led the University of Illinois' CS department (ranked #5 nationally) and spent 25 years at CMU, where he pioneered analog CAD tools and founded Neolinear (acquired by Cadence) and Voci Technologies (acquired by Medallia).

Education: PhD (Computer Engineering, University of Michigan, 1984), MS (Computer Engineering, University of Michigan, 1979), BS (Electrical Engineering, Wayne State University, 1978).

Research interests include analog circuit synthesis, statistical methods for nanoscale ICs, and hardware architectures for AI. Notable contributions include the first MOOC on chip design tools (60k+ learners) and the Phil Kaufman Award for lifetime contributions to EDA. His work spans over 200 publications and 14 patents, with funding from DARPA, NSF, and industry partners like Google and IBM.

Awards include ACM SIGDA Pioneering Achievement Award (2021), AAAS Fellowship (2019), and NAI Fellow (2019). He has advised over 50 PhD students, many of whom lead industry and academia (e.g., Amith Singhee at IBM, Saurabh Tiwary at Google).

Rutenbar's leadership initiatives at Pitt include the Momentum Funds for team science, LifeX Labs for life sciences commercialization, and the Office of Industry Partnerships to align research with industry needs.