# About

Canonical URL: <https://www.ashwinrohit.com/about>
Last updated: 2026-08-21

I am Ashwin Rohit Alagiri Rajan, and I study Computer Engineering at the
University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering. I am advised by
[Prof. Hadi Esmaeilzadeh](https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~hadi/), and I work on
computer architecture — specifically on acceleration for workloads that are
outgrowing the machines they run on.

## Research

Two threads run through my current work. The first is what an accelerator
should look like when the workload will not hold still: *Accelerator
Polymorphism* (ISCA 2026) asks whether a domain-specific architecture can be
made to shift shape across the very different kernels a robot has to run,
rather than being fixed at tape-out for one of them. The second is what an
accelerator owes the people whose models and data pass through it: *IroKnight*
(ISCA 2026) is an ownership-preserving neural accelerator for inference
serving, aimed at the case where a model owner and a serving provider do not
fully trust each other.

Earlier, I worked on the environmental cost of computing hardware rather than
its speed. *Reducing the Carbon Footprint of EdTech with Repurposed Devices*
(IGSC 2024) looked at whether retired consumer devices can carry real
educational workloads instead of being replaced, and what that substitution
actually saves. The publication list, with papers and BibTeX, is on the
[home page](https://www.ashwinrohit.com/home.md).

## Teaching and writing

I helped build and release an open-source parallel programming curriculum,
which I presented at the Qualcomm Platforms Symposium in 2024. I also write
occasionally about the parts of systems programming that are underdocumented —
a walkthrough of [getting started with Metal C++](https://medium.com/@ashwinalra/getting-started-with-metal-cpp-5f21423ed72a),
for instance. My graphics work includes a relativistic black hole ray tracer
that traces null geodesics through curved spacetime, which was selected as a
best final project in UC San Diego's CSE 168.

## Elsewhere

- [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HdBa_cEAAAAJ) — publications and citations
- [GitHub](https://www.github.com/rohitashwin) — code, including the graphics and curriculum work
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwinrohit)
- [Curriculum vitae (PDF)](https://www.ashwinrohit.com/assets/resume.pdf)

The quickest way to reach me is by email; details and postal address are on the
[contact page](https://www.ashwinrohit.com/contact.md).