Director

Arman Roohi

Arman Roohi (Bio)

Associate Professor

Arman Roohi is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, where he is the director of the RUIC Laboratory. Before joining UIC, he was an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2020-2024) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin (2019-2020). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA, in 2019. His research interests span the areas of cross-layer co-design for implementing complex machine learning tasks and secure computation, including hardware security and the security of artificial intelligence, reconfigurable and adaptive computer architectures, and beyond CMOS computing, which has led to over 150 publications.

Postdoc

Sepehr Tabrizchi

Sepehr Tabrizchi (Bio)

Postdoc
Since (2026-present)

Sepehr Tabrizchi is currently a Postdoc student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. He received a master’s degree in computer systems architecture from Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran, in 2018 and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in computer engineering from the Azad University Najafabad Branch, Iran. His research interests include processing-in-memory (PIM), in-sensor computing, VLSI design, non-volatile memories, and brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing.

Ph.D. Student

Omer Kurkutlu

Omer Kurkutlu (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)

Omer Kurkutlu is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. He received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Pune, India, in 2021. His research interests include robotics, reinforcement learning, bio-inspired design and intermittent computing.

Ali Shafiee Sarvestani

Ali Shafiee Sarvestani (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2025-present)

Ali Shafiee Sarvestani is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. He earned a master’s degree in Computer Systems Architecture from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2012, and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, in 2009.

Hong Ding

Hong Ding (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2025-present)

Hong Ding is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Illinois Chicago. He received his B.E. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Xiamen University Malaysia. His research interests focus on computer vision, visual computing, and brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing, as well as autonomous driving perception and intelligent systems, 3D scene understanding and generation, and vision–language multimodal learning.)

Oluwaseun Adekola

Oluwaseun Adekola (Bio)

Teaching Assistant
Since (2025-present)

Oluwaseun Adekola is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) from Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2022. His research interests lie at the intersection of Embedded Systems, TinyML, Edge AI, and Signal Processing, aiming to enhance Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). He is particularly interested in developing intelligent sensing systems and embedded AI-driven technologies that process real-world data with high efficiency and precision.

Rebati Gaire

Rebati Gaire (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Rebati Gaire is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA. He completed his Master’s at the School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from IOE, Pulchowk Campus, Nepal, in 2021. His research focuses on efficient inference for vision-language models, multimodal AI, biomedical computer vision, edge AI, and resource-efficient machine learning systems.

Fahim Foysal

Fahim Foysal (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Fahim Foysal is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA. He received his M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia, USA, in 2021, and his B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology in 2021. His research interests include Processing-in-Memory (PIM), Processing-in-Sensor (PIS), edge AI hardware, analog and mixed-signal circuit design, hardware security, and energy-efficient computing architectures.

Master’s Student

Neeraj Solanki

Neeraj Solanki (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2024-present)

Neeraj Solanki is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), USA. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology WPU, Pune, India, in 2021. His research interests lie in Machine Learning and enhancing security using machine learning techniques. Neeraj is also working on projects related to image reconstruction and GANs for security applications.

Jason Schmidt

Jason Schmidt (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Jason Schmidt is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), graduating in Spring 2026. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at UIC. His research focuses on lightweight neural networks, particularly on optimizing energy efficiency through techniques like quantization-aware training and adaptive early exits. Beyond his academic work, Jason is passionate about machine learning and data engineering and enjoys studying Arabic, traveling, and following European football.

Undergraduate Students

Shayan Gerami

Shayan Gerami (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2025-present)

Shayan Gerami is an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Information and Decision Sciences and Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago, graduating in Fall 2026. His research focuses on hardware-friendly and robust computer vision, computational imaging, and efficient edge AI systems.

Bobby Labonite

Bobby Labonite (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Gonzalo Hartstein

Gonzalo Hartstein

Gonzalo Hartstein (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Gonzalo Hartstein is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. His research focuses on intermittent and energy-efficient computing for batteryless and resource-constrained embedded systems.

Mahd Basit

Mahd Basit

Mahd Basit (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Mahd Basit is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, graduating in Fall 2026. His interests include embedded systems and robotics. His current research focuses on developing autonomous control algorithms for drones by creating and implementing flight controllers in simulation for sim-to-real deployment on physical platforms.

Ryan Chien

Ryan Chien

Ryan Chien (Bio)

Research Assistant
Since (2026-present)

Ryan Chien is a Computer Engineering Undergraduate student at the University of Illinois Chicago and a Hardware & Software Co-Design Intern in the RUIC Lab. His work focuses on developing embedded software and navigation algorithms for autonomous tiny drones, including lightweight mapping, path planning, and obstacle avoidance on resource-constrained platforms. He has also designed a multi-cycle 8-bit CPU in Verilog for FPGA deployment, reflecting his broader interests in embedded systems, computer architecture, and autonomous robotics.

Completed Ph.D. Graduates

  • Sepehr Tabrizchi (2022-2025)

Completed M.S. Graduates

  • Samuele Pasquale (2024-2025)
  • Rebati Raman Gaire (2023-2025)

Completed Research Undergraduates

  • Jason Schmidt (2024-2026)
  • Ramy Gharib (2024-2025)
  • Ricardo Canovas (REU June 2022-Aug 2022)
    • California State University, San Bernardino