2025-11-27

Arturo Prieto defends his PhD thesis Friday, December 12th, in E:1406 at 09:15.

Title of thesis: 3D Integration Technology and Near-Memory Computing for Edge AI.

Link to thesis in Lund University Research Portal

Zoom link.
Zoom ID: 66847927874.

Describe your research in a popular science way
Digital applications, led by the growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), have increased its presence in the world today and enable new possibilities. We can see that AI has reached many aspects of society, allowing us to find answers and inspiration, offering personalized content on social media, or accurate image processing for diagnosis in healthcare treatments. However, the energy consumption of electronic devices processing AI applications is more dominant and has greater relevance in the world today. At the same time, data privacy is a concern, so keeping the processing on local devices avoids privacy breaks, but demands more processing capabilities from battery-powered devices. Specialized hardware needs to be designed to efficiently process the digital applications of the future. From the technology perspective, microchip integration has conventionally followed a miniaturization strategy to increase density. Moreover, from a hardware design point of view, memory and computation are conventionally separated. In this thesis, 3D integration is considered as an alternative to miniaturization to improve area efficiency, and near-memory computation is proposed as a way to bring data storage and processing closer to each other.

What is the most fascinating or interesting with your thesis subject?
The technology in our hands, smartphones and electronics devices, allows us to expand our capabilities in communication, access to information, or entertainment. The most fascinating part of my thesis subject is the evaluation of techniques for improving the circuits that serve as the foundation of a digitally connected world.

Do you believe some results from your research will be applied in practice eventually? And if so, how / how?
Yes, I believe that the work we have done presents suitable solutions to improve the limitations of hardware platforms. The continuous development of digital applications processing vast amounts of data demands energy efficient hardware that can benefit from the design techniques proposed in this thesis work.