Jennifer Brana

GHC 6002 · 5000 Forbes Ave · Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Email: jbrana [at] cs.cmu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

I am a PhD student in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. I am advised by Professor Nathan Beckmann and a member of CORGi@CMU and the Parallel Data Lab. I am supported by a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

My research interests lie in computer architecture and sustainable computing, specifically in the design and optimization of highly parallel architectures and memory systems. Currently, I work on near-data processing through my work on Polymorphic Cache Hierarchies.

I did my undergrad in computer science and computer engineering at the University of Portland. During my undergrad, I worked with Nathan Beckmann at Carnegie Mellon University as part of REUSE. I designed and formally verified a novel cache coherence protocol for near-cache accelerators and researched design methodologies for non-standard coherence protocols.

News

2024

2024-08-08: My masters student, Bas Yoovidhya, defended his thesis. Congrats Bas!
2024-06-03: Started an internship at AMD Research working with Alireza Kaviani.

2023

2023-11-07: Presented Kobold at the CMU Parallel Data Lab (PDL) Workshop & Retreat.
2023-10-26: After advisor matching, I'm officially advised by Nathan Beckmann!
2023-06-05: Started my PhD at CMU CSD.
2023-04-04: Kobold will appear in IEEE Computer Architecture Letters (CAL).
2023-04-03: I will be attending Carnegie Mellon University to pursue a PhD in Computer Science!
2023-03-29: Awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
2023-03-08: Selected as the 2023 Outstanding Senior in Computer Science at University of Portland.

2022

2022-10-03: Presented Kobold at the Student Research Competition at MICRO'22.
2022-10-02: Presented Kobold at WDDSA at MICRO'22.
2022-09-15: Kobold will also appear at the Student Research Competition at MICRO'22.
2022-09-07: Kobold: Simplified Cache Coherence for Cache-Attached Accelerators will appear at the 1st Workshop on Democratizing Domain-Specific Accelerators (WDDSA) at MICRO'22.

Education

Carnegie Mellon University

PhD Student

Computer Science - Computer Architecture

June 2023 - Present

University of Portland

Bachelor of Science

Computer Science

Minor: Computer Engineering

August 2019 - May 2023

Publications

Kobold: Simplified Cache Coherence for Cache-Attached Accelerators

Jennifer Brana , Brian C. Schwedock, Yatin A. Manerkar, Nathan Beckmann

IEEE CAL 2023

[doi] [paper] [lightning talk]

Kobold: Simplified Cache Coherence for Cache-Attached Accelerators

Jennifer Brana , Brian C. Schwedock, Yatin A. Manerkar, Nathan Beckmann

Workshop on Democratizing Domain-Specific Accelerators (WDDSA) @ MICRO 2022, October 2022

[paper] [slides]

Kobold: Simplified Cache Coherence for Cache-Attached Accelerators

Jennifer Brana , Brian C. Schwedock, Yatin A. Manerkar, Nathan Beckmann

Student Research Competition @ MICRO 2022, October 2022

[poster]

Experience

Graduate Research Assistant

Carnegie Mellon University

Researching in computer architecture.

June 2023 - Present

Research Intern

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Researching near-cache computing systems. Mentor: Alireza Kaviani

June 2024 - August 2024

Undergraduate Research Assistant

REUSE // CORGi @ CMU

Researched methods to design novel cache coherence protocols, specifically for cache-attached accelerators.

May 2022 - May 2023

Research Assistant

University of Portland

Researched CPU specialization methods to increase the performance and efficiency of Viterbi Decoding.

January 2022 - May 2022

Undergraduate Research Assistant

University of Portland

Researched EEG‑based view of comprehension of truth statements to understand how humans process undefined statements.

May 2021 - August 2021

Fun

I like to climb things, trail run, hike, and pick up heavy weights. Also, corgis.