Shawn Blanton

Shawn Blanton is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering. He serves as the Associate Head of Research and founded the Advanced Chip Test Laboratory (ACTL), focusing on data-mining techniques for secure and efficient integrated systems.

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1995)
• MS/BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering/Engineering, University of Arizona and Calvin College (1989)

Blanton's research spans hardware security, semiconductor test methodologies, and machine learning applications in electronic design automation. He founded TestWorks, a CMU spinout analyzing IC test data, and co-founded the Security Assurance of Fabricated Electronics Center (SAFECENTER) under CyLab.

His recent work includes the BRIDGE framework integrating graph models and large language models for EDA, published at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on LLM-Aided Design. His publications and patents reflect 30+ years of innovation in chip testing and security.

• NSF CAREER Award (1997)
• IBM Faculty Partnership Awards (2005, 2006)
• Lifetime Achievement in Academia Award (2022)
• Best Paper Award at GLSVLSI (2024)

Blanton has delivered >100 invited talks across academia and industry, including Stanford, IBM, and Qualcomm, and held editorial/leadership roles in IEEE/ACM conferences and journals.