About Me

Dr. Danella Zhao is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. Between 2016-2022, she was a Graduate Program Director and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Old Dominion University (ODU). Before joining ODU, she was a Lockheed Martin Corporation/BORSF Endowed Associate Professor at the Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS), the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette). She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from University at Buffalo, SUNY, and her B.E. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China.

Dr. Zhao's research focuses on the broad theme of high-performance secure and intelligent computing, spanning such topics as multicore/ many-core computing and on-chip networking, Internet-of-Things (IoT) intelligence & security, hardware security, autonomous computing, and machine learning. She is one of the pioneers in the research of wireless Network-on-Chip, a new communication paradigm for building energy-efficient many-core chips. Based on this research, she received the prestigious NSF CAREER award. Her research was recognized by various awards such as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Research Excellence Award, Louisiana Board of Regents Commendation for Teacher-Scholar, and Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship Award.

Dr. Zhao enjoys various professional activities and services, serving as the Steering Committee Chair, General Chair, and TPC Chair of several semiconductors and electronic design automation conferences. She is the General Chair of the 2021
IEEE International System-on-Chip Conference and the TPC Chair of the 2022 IEEE Microelectronics Design and Test Symposium.

Research Opportunities @ The Lab for Secure & Intelligent NanoComputing

We are looking for sharp, self-motivated, and hard-working senior undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research in real-time machine learning, IoT security, and emerging microchip design and innovative computing infrastructure. Don't worry about "not being ready" for research. We have students publishing their master's projects in major IEEE conferences and winning the best student presentation award. Don't even worry if you are not sure what "doing research" means. You will LEARN IT BY DOING IT.

Why do research?
We, professors, do research because it is fun. Hopefully, you will also feel it fun and exciting to explore new research problems. Research experiences are also rewarding, widening your job opportunities and polishing your resume and interview techniques—Professor Jason Eisner@JHU advice on How to Do Research with A Professor.