For Prospective Students

Prospective PhD Students

If you are contemplating working with me as a PhD student, please make sure that your research interests align with the fields that I work in: core micro-architecture, architectural support for security, and simulation methodology.   I encourage you to examine my existing reasearch and read my papers.   

If your research interests do align with mine, then

  • Current Duke Students: ask your professor for ECE 552 (grad architecture) to recommend you to me.  If you are an undergraduate and have not taken 552 yet, then have your 250 professor talk to me.   Follow up their recommendation with an email to setup an appointment.
  • Non-Duke Students: please consult The Graduate School's application page.   Students can only be admitted through the normal application process.  You are welcome to contact me during the application process and discuss your research interests.  If you have taken a computer architecture class with a professor that I know well, and they can introduce you to me, that is best.

Prospective Masters Students

If you are interested in applying to Duke ECE's Masters programs, you should do so through

I am happy to discuss the program with you via email, but will NOT assess your chances of admission based on an email conversation.  We only review completed application dossiers, and do not guess an applicant's chances based on partial information provided in an email.

Current Students Interested in a Project or IS

If you are currently a Duke ECE Masters student (MS or MEng) or undergraduate and are interested in working with me on a project or independent study, I am generally happy to advise these in any appropriate area: software development, compilers, programming languages, and computer architecture.   If there is too much interest in a given semester, I may be limited in the number of projects that I can advise based on the time commitment required.

I will consider students from other departments on a case-by-case basis.

Generally, I will want you to have taken (and done well in) the appropriate class for the area in which you are interested in working with me.  Usually this is some combination of 551, ERSS, 651, 650, 553, and/or 552.   If you need expertise from one of these classes which I did not teach you in, I will likely want a recommendation from your professor for that class.