PhD student Mohamed Gharib honored for his research by SRC
PhD student Mohamed Gharib honored for his research by SMC
PhD Student Mohamed Gharib, a third-year doctoral student, was recognized by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) in a June LinkedIn post.
SRC is one of the world’s leading semiconductor innovation organizations, bringing together technology companies, universities, and government agencies to advance next-generation semiconductor technologies.
Each month, SRC selects one researcher from across its nationwide research programs to feature on its LinkedIn page, recognizing their outstanding research accomplishments and impact.
Gharib holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical, electronics, and communications engineering from Cairo University in Egypt. He has industry experience as a system-on-chip physical design engineer with both Si-Vision in Cairo and Racyics GmbH in Frankfurt, working on the physical layout of computer chips.
He chose UIC for his doctoral studies specifically to work with Associate Professor Inna Partin-Vaisband, a renowned expert in power delivery systems, in her High-Performance Circuits and Systems Lab. He is also conducting research as an intern at Argonne National Laboratory, where he is developing cryogenic electronics required for quantum computing.
Because electronics in quantum computers, such as readouts, work at 4 degrees Kelvin (-269 degrees Celsius), “these chips must be optimized to deliver the expected performance at cryogenic temperatures while operating at low voltages,” Gharib said. “It is a challenging task, but an exciting one.”
His doctoral research combines analytical modeling, machine learning, and electronic design automation to address critical bottlenecks in high-performance computing and AI hardware. Computer chips are reaching the physical limits of two-dimensional design, so three-dimensional chips are being developed to increase transistor density, improve performance, and reduce energy consumption. These 3D chips involve multiple stacked layers of silicon circuits.
“We were placing chips next to each other, but now we’re going vertical, which can be very challenging,” Gharib said. “Each chip produces heat, so we are limited by how to dissipate this heat outside of the 3D package.”