Joseph Zambreno

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Address: ECpE Department, Iowa State University
2215 Coover Hall
Ames, IA 50011
Office: 2218 Coover (map) (floorplan)
Email: zambreno AT iastate DOT edu
Phone: (515) 294-3312
Other: Zoom, Discord

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University

Brief Biography

Joseph A. Zambreno has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University since 2006, where he currently holds the Ross Martin Mehl and Marylyne Munas Mehl Professorship in Computer Engineering. He also serves as the Director of Undergraduate Education for the department and heads the Reconfigurable Computing Lab (RCL). From 2018 to 2023 he served as the Associate Chair for the department. Prior to joining ISU he was at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where he graduated with his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2006, his M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2002, and his B.S. degree summa cum laude in Computer Engineering in 2001. While at Northwestern University, Dr. Zambreno was a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the Northwestern University Graduate School Fellowship, the Walter P. Murphy Fellowship, and the EECS department Best Dissertation Award for his Ph.D. dissertation titled “Compiler and Architectural Approaches to Software Protection and Security.” He is a recent recipient of the NSF CAREER award (2012), as well as the ISU award for Early Achievement in Teaching (2012), the College of Engineering Outstanding Achievement in Teaching Award (2019), and the ECpE department’s Warren B. Boast undergraduate teaching award (2009, 2011, 2016).

Research Interests

Computer architecture, compilers, embedded systems, and hardware/software co-design, with a separate focus on run-time reconfigurable architectures and compiler techniques for software protection. More generally, I am interested in application acceleration, including the design and implementation of optimized FPGA architectures, GPU systems, and other embedded platforms for various real-world domains such as cryptography, image and video processing, and machine learning.

Recent News

Aug 1, 2023 Currently registered for ENGR 160 and considering a specialization in software, computer, or cyber security engineering, or just want to get better at programming? Check our CprE 161 - a new, asychronously online, second-half semester class that provides substantial programming practice for engineering students.
Jul 15, 2023 This upcoming semester I will be teaching EE 285 again. For a preview of what to expect, you can review last fall’s video lectures on Youtube.
Apr 21, 2023 Another successful semester for the non-thesis M.S. students in my CprE / EE 599 - Creative Component course. Congratulations Rajesh, Pawan, and Cheyenne!
Nov 23, 2022 Congratulations to Matt Dwyer, Ben Welte, and Cristian George on their recent successful M.S. thesis defenses! Post-graduation, Matt will working as a GPU Architect at NVIDIA in Austin, TX, Ben will working as an R&D Engineer at Vermeer here in Ames, and Cristian will be working as a Hardware Verification Engineer at IBM.

Selected Recent Publications

  1. BerZam23A
    Efficient Unmanned Aerial Systems Navigation With Collision Avoidance in Dense Urban Environments
    Joshua Bertram, Joseph Zambreno, and Peng Wei
    IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (T-ITS), Aug 2023
  2. EzeOlu20A
    Reverse Engineering Controller Area Network Messages using Unsupervised Machine Learning
    Uchenna Ezeobi, Habeeb Olufowobi, Clinton Young, Joseph Zambreno, and Gedare Bloom
    IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, Jan 2022
  3. QasDen20A
    Benchmarking Vision Kernels and Neural Network Inference Accelerators on Embedded Platforms
    Murad Qasaimeh, Kristof Denolf, Alireza Khodamoradi, Michaela Blott, Jack Lo, Lisa Halder, Kees Vissers, Joseph Zambreno, and Phillip Jones
    Journal of Systems Architecture, Feb 2021
  4. SahDuw20A
    CyNAPSE: A Low-power Reconfigurable Neural Inference Accelerator for Spiking Neural Networks
    Saunak Saha, Henry Duwe, and Joseph Zambreno
    Journal of Signal Processing Systems, Feb 2020
  5. GriDav18A
    ARMOR: A Recompilation and Instrumentation-free Monitoring Architecture for Detecting Memory Exploits
    Alex Grieve, Michael Davies, Phillip Jones, and Joseph Zambreno
    IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), Feb 2018