Ming Gong

Ming Gong

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Ming Gong

Pittsburgh, PA | Short version →

Research interests: digital VLSI, computer architecture, hardware acceleration, and systems programming.

Education

2026 – present Carnegie Mellon University
PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering

2024 – 2026 Columbia University
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Summa Cum Laude · GPA 4.26/4.33

2021 – 2024 Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Bachelor of Arts in Physics, Summa Cum Laude · GPA 3.99/4.0

Publications

Posters & Presentations

Research Experience

Jul. 2026 – present Graduate Research Assistant
VLSI Design Group, CMU

  • Built a PyTorch fault-injection framework for YOLOv8n to size the trusted partition for a secure-FPGA + Jetson deployment. Identified a 448-weight critical set (1% of FLOPs) at the network’s input and output boundaries.
  • Exploring heterogeneous eFPGA architectures and routing fabric configs to improve interconnect efficiency.
  • Building a PyVISA-based automated post-silicon testing framework to extract ASIC operating margins.

Jan. 2025 – May 2026 Research Assistant with Dr. Xia Zhou
Mobile X Lab, Columbia University

  • Designed hybrid FPCB electrodes with a capacitive motion-reference channel and driven bias for a loose-shirt ECG; 92.7% full-waveform detection at rest (r = 0.89) and 4.58 bpm HR error while walking.
  • Developed multichannel impedance monitoring PCBs, from schematic through board bring-up, to infer patient health conditions.
  • Designed, fabricated, and tested fabric sensors integrated into SoftSleep orthopedic pillows.

Sept. 2024 – May 2025 Research Assistant with Dr. Katayun Barmak
Barmak Lab, Columbia University

  • Used PyTorch to train U-Net convolutional neural networks for polycrystalline grain boundary detection.
  • Built a data-augmentation pipeline that crops micrographs and their ground-truth tracings into aligned sub-images to enlarge the training set, and binarized model predictions for comparison against human hand tracings.
  • Showed that binary cross-entropy loss double-penalizes slightly misaligned traces, and proposed two alternative evaluation metrics: a fixed-pixel “top-hat” criterion and a continuous Gaussian-dilation loss.

Jun. 2022 – Jun. 2025 Physics Intern with Dr. Michael Bergman
Bard College at Simon’s Rock

  • Cast directionally solidified (1K/min) and fine-grained Zn-alloy samples (0.2 to >30 mm grains) and ran ultrasonic pulse-echo experiments at 1–10 MHz across 90 measurement spots on 4 samples.
  • Developed a Python echo-detection algorithm that splits each pulse-echo trace into scattered (R₁) and transmitted (T₁) energy per cycle, defining a new scattering quality factor Q_Z = (R₁ + T₁)/R₁.
  • Scaled lab Q_Z to Earth’s inner core for 5–20% single-crystal Fe anisotropy, ruling out randomly oriented ~10 km grains and linking lateral variations in seismic attenuation (Q_P) to grain size; first-author paper (PEPI 2025).
  • Presented a poster at the 2024 SEDI Conference.

Mar. 2022 – Jul. 2024 Research Assistant with Dr. Xi Chen
Zhejiang University

  • Benchmarked DNN, CNN, and decision tree architectures to model nonlinear pure component properties.
  • Co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on ML-based pure component property estimation (Engineering, 2024).

Teaching

Fall 2026 Teaching Assistant
Carnegie Mellon University

  • TA for 18-622 Digital IC Design

Jan. 2025 – May 2026 Teaching Assistant
Columbia University

  • TA for Embedded Systems (CSEE 4840)
  • Head TA for Fundamentals of Computer Systems (CSEE 3827)
  • Developed and optimized exam problems. Created supplemental materials to enhance and extend lecture content.
  • Disability Services notetaker for a variety of CSEE courses

Feb. 2022 – May 2024 Tutor
Bard College at Simon’s Rock

  • Peer tutor in math, physics, chemistry, and computer science.
  • Class tutor for Quantum Physics, Classical Mechanics, and Ordinary Differential Equations.
  • Guided students on math and CS projects, offering outline planning and step-by-step hints.

Industry Experience

Jun. – Aug. 2025 Algorithms Intern
Alibaba Group

  • Built deep-search LLM agents for large-scale business web scraping, raising business-development contact email search success from 20% to 60%.
  • Fine-tuned Qwen multilingual LLMs with supervised fine-tuning (SFT) to improve translation quality across 92 languages.

Awards and Honors

Skills

  • EDA: Cadence Genus, Innovus, Virtuoso; Synopsys Design Compiler; AMD Vitis; Intel Quartus; VTR; SPICE
  • Languages & Tools: SystemVerilog, Chisel/Scala, Tcl, Python, C/C++, MATLAB, Java, Git, Linux
  • Digital Design: RTL, Logic Synthesis, Place & Route, Static Timing Analysis, Timing Closure, FPGA Prototyping, eFPGA Architecture, Hardware Accelerators, Fault Injection
  • Hardware & Mixed-Signal: Analog Design, PCB Design, Post-Silicon Validation, PyVISA, Signal Processing
  • Machine Learning: PyTorch, TensorFlow, CNN/U-Net, CNN Fault Injection, LLM Fine-Tuning (SFT)

Selected Projects

Courses

Computer Engineering:
Computer Networks, Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, Advanced Logic Design, Digital VLSI Circuits, Advanced Digital Electronic Systems, Reconfigurable Logic, Modern Computer Architecture

Computer Science:
Advanced Programming, Advanced Systems Programming, Computer Science Theory, Artificial Intelligence, Networked Autonomous Systems, Operating Systems, C++ Deep Dive for C Programmers, Machine Learning

Electrical Engineering:
Solid-State Devices and Materials, Analog Electronic Circuits, Random Signals and Noise

Mathematics:
Probability and Statistics, Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra

Physics:
Quantum Physics, Relativity & Cosmology, Classical Mechanics, Electrodynamics, Statistical Thermodynamics

Chemistry:
Organic Chemistry

Activities

Oct. 2024 – May 2026 Electrical and Programming Lead
Columbia Robotics Club

  • Founding member of the Combat Robot Subteam.
  • Coordinated with the team lead and programming team to design robot electronics and control software.
  • Event supervisor for Robot Tour at the Columbia University Science Olympiad Invitational.

Aug. 2025 – May 2026 Executive Board
Columbia IEEE

  • Maintained the Columbia IEEE website.
  • Hosted Open Project Space and beginner-friendly Arduino workshops.

Sept. 2024 – May 2026 Organizational Committee Member
Columbia Global China Connection

  • Organized social, cultural, and pre-professional events for Chinese students at Columbia.
  • Collaborated with a team of 10 to manage GCC’s website and social media platforms.

Sept. 2024 – May 2026 Executive Board Member
Columbia Data Science Society

  • Organized data-science events and workshops for the Columbia community and the NYC area.

Member
Tau Beta Pi

Sept. 2021 – May 2024 President
Simon’s Rock Robotics Club

  • Established a team of 10 from scratch; planned and allocated team budgets.
  • Lectured Arduino lessons for beginners.

Sept. 2021 – May 2024 Member
Simon’s Rock STEM Competition Club

  • Conducted weekly math modeling sessions, dedicating 3 hours per week to lead a team of 5.
  • Competed in SCUDEM VIII and won the Outstanding Award.

Interests

Electronics, Lego, combat robots; road trip, swimming, hiking, badminton, tennis

References

  • Ken Mai
    Principal Systems Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Michael Bergman
    Emily H. Fisher Professor of Physics, Bard College at Simon’s Rock
  • Xia Zhou
    Associate Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
  • Martha Kim
    Associate Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
  • Stephen Edwards
    Associate Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
  • David Vallancourt
    Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering, Columbia University
  • Xiaodong Wang
    Professor of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University
  • David Myers
    Professor of Chemistry, Bard College at Simon’s Rock
  • Miha Habič
    Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Bard College at Simon’s Rock