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Franz Franchetti

Kavčić-Moura Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering
Director, Engineering Research Accelerator

Contact

A312 Hamerschlag Hall
franzf(through)ece.cmu.edu
412-268-8297
412-268-3038

Address 5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

Franz Franchetti is the Kavčić-Moura Professor (with indefinite tenure) of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Dipl.-Ing. (M.Sc.) degree in Technical Mathematics and his Dr. techn. (Ph.D.) degree in Computational Mathematics from the Vienna University of Technology in 2000 and 2003, respectively. In 2006, he was member of the team which won the Gordon Bell Prize (Peak Performance Award) and in 2010 he was member of the team which won the HPC Challenge Class II Award (most productive system). In 2013 he was awarded the College of Engineering Dean’s Early Career Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon.

Franchetti’s research focuses on automatic performance tuning and program generation for emerging parallel platforms and algorithm/hardware co-synthesis. He targets multicore CPUs, clusters and high-performance systems (HPC), graphics processors (GPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), FPGA-acceleration for CPUs, and logic-in-memory and 3DIC chip design. Within the SPIRAL effortOpens in new window, his research goal is to enable automatic generation of highly optimized software libraries for important kernel functionality. In other collaborative research threads, Franchetti is investigating the applicability of domain-specific transformations within standard compilers and the application of HPC in smart grids and material sciences. He has led four DARPA projects in the BRASS, HACMS, PERFECT, and PAPPA programs and is Co-PI in the DOE ExaScale Project and XStack program as well as DARPA DPRIVE.

Franchetti is the associate dean for research for the College of Engineering, as well as the director of the Engineering Research Accelerator at Carnegie Mellon. He is also CTO and Co-Founder of Spiral Gen, Inc., a Pittsburgh area startup that commercializes the Spiral technology. Previously, he has been Thrust Leader of the Security Thrust in Carnegie Mellon’s SRC Smart Grid Research Center and faculty senator for the ECE Department at Carnegie Mellon.

Franchetti is immediate past president of the Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America (ASciNAOpens in new window), and currently leads the ASciNA Western PennsylvaniaOpens in new window chapter. Please contact him if you are an Austrian academic in the Greater Pittsburgh area. He is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Austria for Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania, USAOpens in new window.

Franchetti has been playing the electric guitar on-stage in various rock bands since 1993. Watch him perform liveOpens in new window or visit Wr. Neustadt’s newcomer festival SCHMUOpens in new window, where he performed and served as stage engineer.

Education

Ph.D., 2003
Vienna University of Technology

M.S., 2000
Vienna University of Technology

Research

Dr. Franchetti's research focuses on automatic performance tuning and program generation for emerging parallel platforms and algorithm/hardware co-synthesis. He targets multicore CPUs, clusters and high-performance systems (HPC), graphics processors (GPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), FPGA-acceleration for CPUs, and logic-in-memory and 3DIC chip design. Within the Spiral effort, his research goal is to enable automatic generation of highly optimized software libraries for important kernel functionality. In other collaborative research threads, Dr. Franchetti is investigating the applicability of domain-specific transformations within standard compilers and the application of HPC in smart grids and material sciences. He leads three DARPA projects in the BRASS, HACMS, and PERFECT programs and is PI/Co-PI on a number of federal and industry grants.