Dr. Olivia Weng successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Efficient and Resilient Neural Networks for On-chip Inference,” which addressed fundamental hardware/software trade-offs in developing hardware-accelerated neural networks for scientific applications. Liv was a critical member of our research group over the past six years and excelled in all academic endeavors – research, advising, education, and service. 

I met Liv when she was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. I was on sabbatical in Chicago in 2019, and giving a UChicago Computer Science Departmental Seminar. She emailed asking for a meeting. I have never received an email from an undergraduate at another institution asking to meet for research after one of my seminars. We met after my seminar, and it was clear from that meeting that she would have an outstanding PhD career. 

Liv’s PhD started during the pandemic – strange times indeed, as all of our early interactions after that first meeting were over Zoom. She led a project in collaboration with a senior PhD student, Ali Khodamoradi, to improve the implementation of neural networks on FPGAs. She assembled an outstanding group of researchers to help her on that project. This launched our group’s recent research into Fast Machine Learning (FastML).

Throughout her PhD, she continued working on topics related to “FastML” and created a new research area within our group focused on resilience in extreme-edge ML. This included developing strong collaborations across the world – FermiLab in Chicago, AMD Xilinx in Ireland, Imperial College in the UK, Switzerland, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, which resulted in strong research for her thesis, but also on a number of projects where she contributed. And, not surprisingly, a similarly strong publication record.

Liv has an outstanding advising record. She was a tremendous mentor through the Early Research Scholars Program, the UCSD GradWIC Mentorship Program, and the Jacobs Undergraduate Mentoring Program. She had many other informal mentorships, particularly within our research group, and was always willing to lend a helping hand and ear towards research ideas, presentations, and manuscripts.

Liv sought out opportunities to teach. She was the Head TA for CSE 142. She served as the CSE 29 instructor over the summer and is currently teaching the course in her final quarter at UCSD.

Liv is the most “honored” PhD that I’ve had the opportunity to work with. She received the Kunzel Powell Fellowship, Jacobs School of Engineering Fellowship, National Science Foundation Research Fellowship, Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Fellowship, MICS-Qualcomm Hypatia Dissertation Fellowship, a selection to the Top Picks Short List in Hardware and Embedded Security, the UCSD CSE Doctoral Award for Excellence in Service and Leadership, and the UCSD CSE Doctoral Award for Excellence in Teaching. I’m guessing she is on a very small list of Ph.D. students to have won two UCSD CSE Doctoral Awards. An incredible list of honors to go along with that is matched by her accomplishments. 

After taking a well-deserved break this summer, Liv will start her post-PhD career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at San Jose State University.