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MICHAEL J. WILKINS

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WELCOME!

My name is Mike Wilkins, and I am a Computer Engineering Ph.D. student at Northwestern University co-advised by Dr. Peter Dinda and Dr. Nikos Hardavellas. I am also a visiting student at Argonne National Laboratory co-advised by Yanfei Guo and Rajeev Thakur. My research aims to improve the programming experience for high-performance computing systems. Below you will find details regarding my experiences and current/past projects.

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EDUCATION

PH.D. COMPUTER ENGINEERING, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Expected: 2023

2019-2020 Royal E. Cabell Fellow
Co-advised by Peter Dinda and Nikos Hardavellas

M.S. COMPUTER ENGINEERING, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

2021

GPA: 3.92

B.S. COMPUTER ENGINEERING, ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

2019

GPA: 3.93
Class of 1940 Endowed Scholarship Recipient
Graduated Summa Cum Laude

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RESEARCH PROJECTS

HIGH-LEVEL PARALLEL LANGUAGES FOR HPC

Ongoing

  • Developing a new distributed parallel runtime for the Standard ML language targeted at HPC applications

  • Created a new version of the NAS benchmark suite using MPL (a parallel compiler for Standard ML) to enable direct comparison between HLPLs and lower-level languages for HPC

MPI COLLECTIVE AUTOTUNING USING ML

Ongoing

  • Developing a machine-learning autotuner that automatically selects the optimal MPI collective algorithm

  • Invented multiple optimizations to make ML-based MPI autotuning feasible on large scale systems

CACHE COHERENCE FOR HIGH-LEVEL PARALLEL LANGUAGES

2020-2022

  • Identified a low-level memory property called WARD that can be introduced by construction in high-level parallel programs.

  • Implemented a custom cache coherence protocol in the Sniper architectural simulator and found an average speedup of 1.46 across the PBBS benchmark suite.

DEVELOPING COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURES (DECA)

2017-2019

  • Developed DeCA: a platform that enables application researchers to prototype FPGA accelerator designs through industry-standard tools and custom software

  • Created a custom FPGA accelerator using DeCA for a neuroscience application to showcase the platform’s capabilities; achieved 1.5x speedup

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INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

RESEARCH AIDE/VISITING STUDENT, ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

2020-Present

  • Active collaboration towards my thesis work with ANL researchers

  • Completed a summer internship studying collective algorithm performance

  • Earned perpetual external funding from ANL for the remainder of my Ph.D.

ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP PROGRAM (ELP) INTERN, NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Summer 2018

  • Engaged with technical leaders through field presentations to top technology companies in the Seattle area

  • Assisted customers to design and troubleshoot data-acquisition applications using NI platforms

TRAILBLAZER INTERN, FLEXWARE INNOVATION

Summer 2017

  • Designed an innovative RFID tracking solution to repair a malfunctioning inventory locating system

  • Produced a full-stack BI database solution analyzing internal employee and revenue data

DIRECTOR OF TOOL SERVICES, POWER SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL

Summer 2016

  • Organized and managed the company’s inventory of CNC machining tools, valued at more than $500,000

  • Trained company technicians on new processes and managed tool services employees

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PUBLICATIONS

WARDEN: SPECIALIZING CACHE COHERENCE FOR HIGH-LEVEL PARALLEL LANGUAGES

Michael Wilkins, Sam Westrick, Vijay Kandiah, Alex Bernat, Brian Suchy, Enrico Armenio Deiana, Simone Campanoni, Umut Acar, Peter Dinda, Nikos Hardavellas

CGO'23

PROGRAM STATE ELEMENT CHARACTERIZATION

Enrico Armenio Deiana, Brian Suchy, Michael Wilkins, Brian Homerding, Tommy McMichen, Katarzyna Dunajewski, Peter Dinda, Nikos Hardavellas, Simone Campanoni

CGO'23

"ACCLAIM: ADVANCING THE PRACTICALITY OF MPI COLLECTIVE COMMUNICATION AUTOTUNING USING MACHINE LEARNING"

Michael Wilkins, Yanfei Guo, Rajeev Thakur, Peter Dinda, Nikos Hardavellas

CLUSTER'22

"A FACT-BASED APPROACH: MAKING MACHINE LEARNING COLLECTIVE AUTOTUNING FEASIBLE ON EXASCALE SYSTEMS"

Michael Wilkins, Yanfei Guo, Rajeev Thakur, Nikos Hardavellas, Peter Dinda, Min Si

ExaMPI'21: Workshop on Exascale MPI

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TECHNICAL SKILLS

SOFTWARE LANGUAGES

C, C++, Python, Standard ML, Parallel ML, Java, C#, LabVIEW, SQL

HARDWARE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGES

Verilog, VHDL, Chisel, SPICE

SIMULATION/TOOLS

Sniper, gem5, Xilinx Vivado, Xilinx ISE, Quartus II, Modelsim, Multisim

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LEADERSHIP

TREASURER, PI KAPPA ALPHA FRATERNITY IOTA DELTA CHAPTER

2017-2019

  • Drafted and managed a budget of over $400,000 across two school years while completing initiatives to increase payment collection and digitize fiduciary practices

PRESIDENT, ROSE-HULMAN BOWLING CLUB

2016-2019

  • Restructured the club’s leadership and daily operation; increased membership by 300%

FOUNDER/PRESIDENT, MOOSEHEART TUTORING PROGRAM

2014-2016

  • Began program to tutor orphaned students at Mooseheart Child City; after 3 years of growth, had 45 students and 24 tutors meeting twice a week

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