Sophia Shao

Sophia Shao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at the University of California, Berkeley. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in July 2024 after serving as an Assistant Professor from August 2019 to June 2024. Previously, she worked as a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA from October 2018 to July 2019. Her academic journey began with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China (2005-2009), followed by a Master of Science (2009-2014) and Ph.D. (2009-2016) in Computer Science from Harvard University.

Shao's research focuses on computer architecture, with special emphasis on domain-specific accelerators, heterogeneous architecture, and agile VLSI design methodology. Her work bridges the gap between hardware and software through systematic approaches to accelerator design and evaluation. She leads research efforts in the Agile Design of Efficient Processing Technologies (ADEPT), Berkeley Emerging Technologies Research (BETR), Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), and SpeciaLIzed Computing Ecosystems (SLICE) centers.

Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward holistic hardware-software co-design for machine learning acceleration, with particular focus on efficient neural network accelerators, multi-tenant execution environments, and automated design methodologies. Her research spans from low-level circuit design to system-level architecture, demonstrating expertise across the entire computing stack. Notably, her work on Gemmini, Stellar, and Virgo represents significant contributions to the field of domain-specific accelerator design and integration.

• Sloan Research Fellowship (2024)
• Anita Borg Early Career Award (2024)
• NSF CAREER Award (2023)
• Google Research Scholar Award (2023)
• IEEE TCCA Young Computer Architect Award (2022)
• Intel Rising Star Faculty Award (2022)
• ISCA Distinguished Artifact Award (2023, 2024)
• Best Paper Award at DAC 2021

Professor Shao actively mentors a large group of graduate and undergraduate students, with several former students now at leading technology companies including NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Apple. Her research has been supported by multiple grants from NSF, Google, Intel, and other organizations. She leads several open-source research projects including Gemmini, Stellar, Chipyard, and RoSÉ, which have gained significant traction in both academic and industrial research communities. Her lab, part of the SLICE ecosystem, focuses on creating next-generation computing platforms through vertically integrated hardware-software approaches.