Jason Ho
Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering, UT Austin
Education
University of Texas at Austin
Aug 2022 – PresentPh.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering (Computer Architecture)GPA: 3.96
Thesis Topic: Design of Energy-Efficient Hybrid Analog/Digital Neuromorphic Architectures
University of Texas at Austin
Aug 2022 – Dec 2024M.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering (Computer Architecture)GPA: 3.96
Coursework: Cross-Layer ML HW/SW Codesign, Parallel Computer Architecture, Prediction Mechanisms in Computer Architecture, ML for Computer Systems, Low Power Design
Brown University
Sept 2018 – May 2022Sc.B. Computer Engineering with HonorsGPA: 3.96
Thesis: Tools for Understanding the Computational Behaviors of Biofilms
Coursework: VLSI Design, Digital Signal Processing, Operating Systems
Research Experience
Graduate Researcher, SLAM Lab — UT Austin
Aug 2022 – PresentAdvisor: Prof. Andreas Gerstlauer
- Researching co-design of hybrid analog/digital neuromorphic computing systems combining analog energy efficiency with digital backend scalability.
- Developed machine learning surrogate models for analog circuits, achieving 3 orders of magnitude simulation speedup over SPICE while keeping energy, latency, and behavior error below 7%, 8%, and 2%.
- Investigating device-level tradeoffs (e.g. RRAMs) in hybrid neuromorphic architectures for spiking neural network acceleration.
Undergraduate Researcher, SCALE Lab — Brown University
Jan 2021 – Jun 2022Advisors: Prof. Sherief Reda, Prof. Jacob Rosenstein
- Modeled bacterial biofilm coupling interactions as Kuramoto oscillators to investigate non-conventional oscillatory computing systems.
- Developed super-resolution techniques for impedance tomography on a custom imaging and stimulation platform.
Publications
- J. Ho, E. Atayeter, T. Blottin, I. Joe, R. Sistrunk, B. Zhang, L. Solnica-Krezel, A. Gerstlauer, J. Wallingford, R. Gray, "Cilia.io: Computer vision and machine learning reveal spatial patterns of cilia beating dynamics in the spinal cord," Cell Reports Methods, 2026. (in review)
- J. Boyle, J. Ho, A. Aalund, Z. Houlton, A. Iman, I. Gonzalez, K. Jha, L. Lui, P. Shroff, R. Sam, S. Cardwell, F. Chance, A. Gerstlauer, "Bridging the Gap in Neuromorphic Co-Design with the SANA-FE Co-Simulation Framework," IEEE Computer Special Issue: Convergence in Neuromorphic Systems, 2026. (in review)
- J. Ho, J. Boyle, L. Liu, A. Gerstlauer, "LASANA: Large-Scale Analog Surrogate Modeling for Neuromorphic Architecture Exploration," International Symposium on Machine Learning for Computer-Aided Design (MLCAD), 2025.
- J. Boyle, J. Ho, M. Plagge, S. Cardwell, F. Chance, A. Gerstlauer, "Exploring Dendrites in Large-Scale Neuromorphic Architectures," International Conference for Neuromorphic Systems (ICONS), 2025.
- K. Hu, J. Ho, J. K. Rosenstein, "Super-Resolution Electrochemical Impedance Imaging with a 512 x 256 CMOS Sensor Array," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems (TBioCAS), 2022.
Talks & Posters
Invited Talks
- "LASANA: Large-Scale Analog Surrogate Modeling for Neuromorphic Architecture Exploration," Qualcomm Internal Ph.D. Talk, July 2025.
Poster Presentations
- "LASANA: Large-Scale Analog Surrogate Modeling," 6G @ UT Symposium, Austin, TX, Nov 2025.
- "LASANA: Large-Scale Analog Surrogate Modeling," iMAGiNE Consortium Poster Session, Austin, TX, Apr 2025.
- "LASANA: Large-Scale Analog Surrogate Modeling," AMD Poster Session, Austin, TX, Nov 2024.
- "LASGNA: Large-Scale Analog Surrogate Modeling," MLCAD 2024, Snowbird, UT, Sept 2024.
Engineering Experience
GPU Power Architect Intern — NVIDIA
May 2026 – Sept 2026Upcoming internship.
CPU Power Characterization & Modeling Intern — Qualcomm
Jun 2025 – Aug 2025- Characterized and modeled energy efficiency of PMIC trees in future Oryon CPUs for mobile and laptop targets.
Power & Performance Lead / Architect Intern — AMD
May 2023 – Aug 2023- Characterized power/performance on APU + discrete GPU platforms focused on dynamic power allocation algorithms.
- Built internal analysis tool linking Power BI and databases to automate log analysis (100x speedup).
VLSI Design & Verification Intern — Seagate Technology
May 2021 – Aug 2022- Led verification environment transition from VMM to UVM and authored firmware initialization code.
- Designed and optimized RTL block to increase ECC correction throughput in hard drive read pipelines.
FPGA Engineering Intern — Nabsys
Jun 2020 – Sept 2020- Developed parallel signal processing state machines on Xilinx FPGAs for DNA sequencing (2x slice reduction, 16x throughput).
Honors & Service
Honors & Awards
- NSF GRFP Honorable Mention (2024, 2022)
- Cockrell School Fellowship, UT Austin (2022 – Present)
- Graduate Excellence Fellow, UT Austin (2022 – Present)
- Sigma Xi & Tau Beta Pi Honor Societies (2021, 2022)
- Best Use of Google Cloud, Hack @ Brown (2020)
Service & Mentorship
- ABET External Advisory Board, Brown University (2025)
- ECE Graduate Peer Mentor, UT Austin (2023 – Present)
- ECE Representative, UT Austin GSA (2023 – 2024)
- Head TA, Design of Computing Systems (RISC-V/FPGA)