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Information for Prospective PhD StudentsThank you for your interest in pursuing graduate studies in Computer Architecture at Georgia Tech!Why do Computer Architecture at Georgia Tech?When most people think about cutting edge computer architecture, names like UT Austin, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan are typically the first to come to mind. Things are changing, however, as Georgia Tech (GT) is rapidly making research impacts in many areas of computer architecture, and we're still growing. Active research areas include high-performance architectures, multi-core and manycore architectures, power-aware computing, hardware support for security and debugging, processor-compiler interaction and co-design, the impact of new manufacturing technologies, and more. Coupled with the rich and diverse research interests of related areas in both of the Schools of Computer Science and Electrical and Computing Engineering, the computer architecture research opportunities at Tech are many and varied. There may be a place here for you, too!Facilities: All computer architecture faculty offices and research laboratories are located in the brand new Klaus Advanced Computing Building. The state-of-the-art LEED-certified environmentally-friendly facility houses over 70 laboratories. Our research computing resources include many clusters funded by numerous research grants, as well as many generous equipment donations from companies like Intel, IBM, NVidia, and more. Research Environment: In addition to the six core computer architecture faculty, Georgia Tech's large CS and ECE faculties (approx. 80 and 110 faculty in each, respectively) provide a rich environment to learn about related disciplines. The numerous research groups and research centers provide many opportunities for inter-disciplinary research collaborations in a variety of closely-connected fields such as compilers and programming languages, circuits and VLSI, embedded and ubiquitous systems, operating systems, software engineering, security, and more. What Program Do I Apply To?You can pursue PhD programs in both the School of Computer Science and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. We have computer architecture faculty in both schools (what other places call "departments"), and cross-advisement is not a problem (some CS faculty advise ECE students, and some ECE faculty advise CS students). The biggest impact of choosing one school over the other has to do with the course requirements. If you are more interested in taking CS courses, then you should apply for the CS program. If you want to take more ECE-focused coursework, then apply for the ECE program. There are also some slight differences in funding models, but for the most part any PhD student that remains in good standing will not have any issues with funding.
Who Can I Work With?There are many computer architecture professors here at Georgia Tech. To the right, we have listed those whose primary area of concentration is computer architecture. There are also several other professors who work in closely related areas who are listed on the main comparch webpage.Do I Want to Live in Atlanta?Atlanta is nothing like the old stereotypes of living in "The Deep South," but rather it is a thriving, modern, cosmopolitan metropolis. You can find people from all over the world here (it.s hard to find someone actually originally from Atlanta), which provides a rich mix of cultures, personalities and experiences for you to explore.
Atlanta is the 9th largest city in the United States, with about one half million people in the city, and 4-5 million in the metro area. Since the 1996 summer Olympics, the city has sustained a tremendous rate of growth and transformed into the "Hub of the New South." The city provides a mix of urban areas such as its downtown, midtown and Buckhead districts, as well as smaller, quainter areas like Little Five Points and Virginia Highland. The city boasts cultural resources such as the High Museum of Art, the Georgia Aquarium, the Fernbank Science Museum, the Martin Luther King Jr. center, and more. Atlanta also features thousands of restaurants representing a huge array of ethnic offerings, classy upscale dining and casual options. The weather here is fantastic with a short, mild winter and an incredible spring and fall. While summers can be quite warm (it's called Hotlanta for a reason!), everything here is air conditioned so we know how to deal with it. The following links provide more information on Atlanta from other Georgia Tech webpages: from Undergrad Admissions, from GT/ESL, and from the College of Management. Safety: Safety is always a concern when moving to a big city. Georgia Tech maintains a safe campus; there were fewer crimes on our campus last year (2006) than other places such as Stanford and UIUC, and almost two-thirds fewer campus crime instances than MIT. (Source: http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/)
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