Hardware Security Expert Recognized as IEEE Fellow

Dr. Yiorgos Makris, professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his pioneering contributions to machine learning-based design of trusted and reliable integrated circuits.

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, has more than 460,000 members in 190 countries. The rank of fellow is conferred for outstanding accomplishments in any IEEE field and is the highest grade of membership. Fewer than 0.1% of IEEE voting members are selected annually for the distinction.

“Dr. Makris is a pioneer in applying machine learning to semiconductor manufacturing and testing, which is immensely important for the quality and reliability of integrated circuits,” said Dinesh Bhatia MS’87, PhD’90, professor and department head of electrical and computer engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “His leadership in the security and trustworthiness of circuits is well recognized.”

Makris has served as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security and the IEEE Design & Test magazine and as a guest editor for the IEEE Transactions on Computers.

He also served as general chair and a program chair for IEEE’s VLSI Test Symposium, and as a program committee member for most IEEE conferences in the areas of VLSI testing, hardware security and electronic design automation. He has received honors including the 2006 Sheffield Distinguished Teaching Award from Yale University, IEEE best paper awards and best hardware demonstration awards. He is also a recipient of the Jonsson School’s 2020 Faculty Research Award.

“Recognition of our contributions by IEEE is a small but meaningful token of appreciation that signifies the societal impact of our efforts and motivates us to continue,” Makris said. “It is particularly rewarding to see the machine learning-based integrated circuit manufacturing and testing solutions, which we developed and championed long before the recent resurgence of artificial intelligence, become indispensable in the semiconductor industry.”

At UTD, Makris is the director of the Trusted and RELiable Architectures Lab, the leader of the Safety, Security, and Health Care thrust of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE) and a co-founder of the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST), a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center.

While cybersecurity focuses on digital security threats to software, circuit hardware also requires a high level of protection from tampering and malicious threats. TxACE focuses on analog technology, which has received increased attention in recent years due to the expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

Through IoT technology, sensors bridge digital and physical worlds. Makris’ area focuses on reliability threats as well as machine learning for design, verification and self-testing. Similarly, CHEST focuses on hardware security and embedded systems, including vulnerability analysis, infrastructure safety and resilience, and secure systems engineering.