Lawrence (Larry) Pileggi (E 1989)

Tanoto Professor and Head, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Bio

Larry Pileggi is the Tanoto Professor and Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has previously held positions at Westinghouse Research and Development and the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include various aspects of digital and analog integrated circuit design and design methodologies, and simulation and modeling of electric power systems. He has consulted for various semiconductor and EDA companies, and he co-founded Fabbrix, Extreme DA, and Pearl Street Technologies.

He has received various awards, including Westinghouse corporation’s highest engineering achievement award, a Presidential Young Investigator award from the National Science Foundation, Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Technical Excellence Awards in 1991 and 1999, the FCRP inaugural Richard A. Newton GSRC Industrial Impact Award, the SRC Aristotle award in 2008, the 2010 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Mac Van Valkenburg Award, the ACM/IEEE A. Richard Newton Technical Impact Award in Electronic Design Automation in 2011, the Carnegie Institute of Technology B.R. Teare Teaching Award for 2013, and the 2015 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award. He is a co-author of “Electronic Circuit and System Simulation Methods,” McGraw-Hill, 1995 and “IC Interconnect Analysis,” Kluwer, 2002. He has published over 300 conference and journal papers and holds 40 U.S. patents. He is a fellow of IEEE.

Education

Ph.D., 1989 
Electrical and Computer Engineering 
Carnegie Mellon University

M.S., 1984 
Electrical Engineering 
University of Pittsburgh

B.S., 1983 
Electrical Engineering 
University of Pittsburgh

Research

Power Systems

The planning, real-time monitoring and security of future power grids requires modeling and analysis capabilities beyond those available presently. Existing models are becoming obsolete as new technologies such as renewables and power electronic based devices become more prevalent, and traditional power flow simulation algorithms lack the robustness and scalability that is needed to represent combined transmission and distribution systems over all dynamics and contingencies. Our work is based on a unique equivalent split circuit formulation that that enables adaptation and application of techniques that were developed for circuit simulation to robustly analyze power grids. Our software tool, SUGAR, provides a foundation for: i) incorporating transmission and distribution models that capture true physics behavior; ii) unifying steady state, dynamics and transient analyses; iii) assessing feasibility and solution of optimal power flow conditions.

Integrated Circuits

While the end of CMOS scaling is now in sight, the advancement of integrated circuits and systems remains a top priority for the electronics industry. A significant portion of our research has been focused on methodologies that support affordable design in sub-20nm CMOS technologies, but much of that work also includes opportunistic integration of emerging heterogeneous technologies that are compatible with the CMOS. We further explore use of emerging materials and devices (e.g. magnetics, resistance change, phase change, etc.) that provide new computational or storage capabilities when configured in new forms, or applied to specific architectures. Several of our projects target specific system applications in domains such as brain and human interfaces.