2021
Ph.D., Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC, USA
Dissertation: Empowering Reconfigurable Platforms for Massively Parallel Applications
Curriculum Vitae
Arnab Ardhendu Purkayastha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering · Western New England University
OfficeSleith Hall 209, Western New England University
Phone+1 (413) 782-1725
Profile
Professional Summary
Assistant Professor and engineering researcher working at the intersection of FPGA-based acceleration, high-performance computing, and embedded systems. An engineering educator committed to hands-on, entrepreneurially minded learning. Active in the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) as a participant, presenter, workshop leader, and faculty mentor. Guides undergraduates to peer-reviewed publications and award-winning design projects.
FPGA and reconfigurable computingHigh-performance and cloud computingHardware acceleration for machine learning at the edgeVLSI design and physical-design optimizationEntrepreneurially minded, project-based engineering education
Education
Degrees
2013
M.Tech., Microelectronics & VLSI
National Institute of Technology (NIT) Agartala, India
2011
B.E., Electrical Engineering
Tripura University, India
Experience
Academic & Professional Appointments
Jan 2022 – Present
Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Western New England University, Springfield, MA
- Undergraduate and graduate teaching in computer engineering and first-year engineering; first-year advisor; senior capstone advisor; undergraduate research mentor.
Aug 2021 – Dec 2021
Research Scientist
TeCSAR Labs, UNC Charlotte, NC
- High-performance computing applications on cloud and edge FPGAs.
2017 – 2021
Graduate Research Assistant
UNC Charlotte, NC
- Ph.D. research on FPGA parallelism, memory-access optimization, and OpenCL high-level synthesis, including three industry-funded projects.
2017 – 2021
Graduate Teaching Assistant
UNC Charlotte, NC
- Computer Architecture, Heterogeneous Computing, Network Theory I, Programming in C++, and Logic Design for undergraduate and graduate students.
Feb 2014 – Jan 2017
Assistant Professor
MU, Mumbai, India
- Taught VLSI Design, IC Technology, and Microcontrollers.
Aug 2013 – Jan 2014
Instrumentation Engineer
Mass-Weigh Systems Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India
- PLC programming and HMI interfaces for industrial weighing and control systems.
Highlights
Featured Publications
#1in Databases & Information Systems
Google Scholar Metrics (h5-index 126)
Google Scholar Metrics (h5-index 126)
A Survey of Graph-Based Deep Learning for Anomaly Detection in Distributed Systems
A. Danesh Pazho, G. Alinezhad Noghre, A. A. Purkayastha, J. Vempati, O. Martin, H. Tabkhi
IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 36, pp. 1–20, 2023. doi:10.1109/TKDE.2023.3282898
#6in Computer Hardware Design
Google Scholar Metrics (h5-index 60)
Google Scholar Metrics (h5-index 60)
LLVM-Based Automation of Memory Decoupling for OpenCL Applications on FPGAs
A. A. Purkayastha, S. Rogers, S. A. Shiddibhavi, H. Tabkhi
Microprocessors and Microsystems (Elsevier), vol. 72, art. 102909, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.micpro.2019.102909
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Work
Journal Articles
- 1.A. A. Purkayastha, J. Tharwani, S. Aggarwal, “Ant Colony Optimization for CMOS Physical Design: Reducing Layout Area and Improving Aspect Ratio in VLSI Circuits,” Electronics (MDPI), vol. 14, no. 24, art. 4825, 2025. doi:10.3390/electronics14244825
- 2.J. Tharwani, A. A. Purkayastha, “Cost-Performance Evaluation of General Compute Instances: AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI,” International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology, vol. 72, no. 11, pp. 248–255, 2024.
- 3.A. Danesh Pazho, G. Alinezhad Noghre, A. A. Purkayastha, J. Vempati, O. Martin, H. Tabkhi, “A Survey of Graph-Based Deep Learning for Anomaly Detection in Distributed Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 36, pp. 1–20, 2023. doi:10.1109/TKDE.2023.3282898Google Scholar Metrics: #1 venue in Databases & Information Systems (h5-index 126).
- 4.“Current Mirror Using FinFETs,” International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET), 2021.
- 5.A. A. Purkayastha, S. Rogers, S. A. Shiddibhavi, H. Tabkhi, “LLVM-Based Automation of Memory Decoupling for OpenCL Applications on FPGAs,” Microprocessors and Microsystems (Elsevier), vol. 72, art. 102909, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.micpro.2019.102909Google Scholar Metrics: #6 venue in Computer Hardware Design (h5-index 60).
- 6.“Improving Performance of VLSI Circuits Using Different Modes of FinFET,” International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR), 2019.
Conference Papers
- 7.C. Burnham*, A. A. Purkayastha, N. Magotra, “Speculative Backpropagation AI Training Framework for FPGA-Oriented Implementation at the IoT Edge,” 69th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2026.
- 8.J. Tharwani, S. Aggarwal, A. A. Purkayastha, “Quantifying Virtualization Overhead for CPU-Intensive HPC Workloads in Hypervisors: A Comparative Study of KVM, Proxmox VE, Xen, and Hyper-V,” IEEE SoutheastCon, pp. 1–6, 2026. doi:10.1109/SoutheastCon63549.2026.11476478
- 9.A. A. Purkayastha, S. Aggarwal, J. Tharwani, “Heuristic-Driven Resource Optimization for Decoupled Memory Channels on FPGAs,” IEEE International Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches in Technology and Management for Social Innovation (IATMSI), vol. 4, pp. 1–6, 2026. doi:10.1109/IATMSI68868.2026.11465435
- 10.S. Aggarwal, A. A. Purkayastha, J. Tharwani, “Empowering IoT with Federated Learning: A Cross-Domain Survey from Healthcare to Industry,” IEEE International Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches in Technology and Management for Social Innovation (IATMSI), vol. 4, pp. 1–5, 2026.
- 11.S. Centeno*, C. Sprague*, A. A. Purkayastha, R. Simar, N. Magotra, “Exploring Parallelism in FPGA-Based Accelerators for Machine Learning Applications,” 68th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), pp. 842–846, 2025. doi:10.1109/MWSCAS53549.2025.11244519
- 12.A. A. Purkayastha, J. Tharwani, S. Aggarwal, “FPGA or GPU? Analyzing Comparative Research for Application-Specific Guidance,” IEEE SoutheastCon, Concord, NC, pp. 1258–1263, 2025. doi:10.1109/SoutheastCon56624.2025.10971274
- 13.J. Tharwani, S. Aggarwal, A. A. Purkayastha, “Evaluating HPC-Style CPU Performance and Cost in Virtualized Cloud Infrastructures,” IEEE SoutheastCon, Concord, NC, pp. 1239–1244, 2025. doi:10.1109/SoutheastCon56624.2025.10971705
- 14.J. Ekong, A. A. Purkayastha, G. Ekong, “Work in Progress: Impact of Collaborative Learning Strategies on Anxiety Reduction in Introductory Programming Courses,” ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2024.
- 15.S. Centeno*, A. A. Purkayastha, “Beyond Trial and Error: Automating Delay Generation in Assembly with Algorithmically Calculated For-Loops,” Global Interdisciplinary Green Cities Conference, 2024.
- 16.S. Aggarwal, A. A. Purkayastha, “SecureTrack: A Contact Tracing IoT Platform for Monitoring Infectious Diseases,” Global Interdisciplinary Green Cities Conference, 2023.
- 17.A. A. Purkayastha, H. Tabkhi, “Design Study on Impact of Memory Access Parallelism for Cloud FPGAs,” 34th IEEE International System-on-Chip Conference (SOCC), pp. 254–259, 2021. doi:10.1109/SOCC52499.2021.9739477
- 18.J. Thiagarajan, A. A. Purkayastha, A. Patil, H. Tabkhi, “Exploring the Scalability of OpenCL Coarse Grained Parallelism on Cloud FPGAs,” 33rd IEEE International System-on-Chip Conference (SOCC), pp. 213–218, 2020. doi:10.1109/SOCC49529.2020.9524765
- 19.A. A. Purkayastha, S. Raghavendran, J. Thiagarajan, H. Tabkhi, “Exploring the Efficiency of OpenCL Pipe for Hiding Memory Latency on Cloud FPGAs,” IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC), pp. 1–7, 2019. doi:10.1109/HPEC.2019.8916236
- 20.A. A. Purkayastha, S. A. Shiddhibhavi, H. Tabkhi, “Taxonomy of Spatial Parallelism on FPGAs for Massively Parallel Applications,” 31st IEEE International System-on-Chip Conference (SOCC), pp. 55–60, 2018. doi:10.1109/SOCC.2018.8618501
Teaching Scholarship
- 21.A. A. Purkayastha, “Remote-Controlled Deep Work Sign: AI-Enhanced Product Design,” KEEN Engineering Unleashed, Card #6116, 2026.
Book
- 22.“VLSI Design,” Tech-Neo Publications, ISBN 978-93-90376-04-9, 2020.
* Undergraduate student mentee.
Research
Research Projects & Outcomes
Anomaly Detection in Complex Distributed Systems
Graph Isomorphism Networks to find and mitigate malicious software processes and gadget chains when hardware/software components of a large system are updated.
Memory Access Parallelism for Cloud FPGAs
Formalized Double Data Rate and burst-transfer optimization to cut global-memory latency on Xilinx cloud FPGAs.
Automating Parallelism on Cloud FPGAs
A generic template and Python-based tool for OpenCL design-space exploration on FPGAs.
LLVM-Based Memory Decoupling on FPGAs
An LLVM automation tool that decouples memory access from computation on Intel Stratix V FPGAs: over 2× speedup and over 40% energy reduction on Rodinia benchmarks.
OpenCL Pipes on Cloud FPGAs
Evaluated memory-access decoupling with OpenCL pipes on Xilinx cloud FPGA benchmark applications.
Taxonomy of Parallelism on FPGAs
A taxonomy formalizing how OpenCL temporal and spatial parallelism map onto FPGAs.
Funding
Grants
| KEEN Faculty Development Workshop Grant (Co-PI) “Transform Teaching with EM and Technology – Make Learning Fun Again!” | $12,500 | 2025 |
| Davis Educational Foundation Grant (Co-PI) “Effect of Pedagogical Interventions on Student Motivations and Attitudes in Quantitative Courses” | $11,500 | 2024 |
| Rice University & Octavo Systems FPGA hardware for the Ghost-in-Machine research collaboration | $2,500 | 2025 |
| WNE Summer Research Grants (2×) ENGR 103 Arduino curriculum redesign | $5,000 | 2023, 2024 |
| WNE Honors Course Creation Grant LaTeX for technical writing with Overleaf | $1,200 | |
| Total | $32,700 |
Proposals Submitted
- NSF Engineering Research Initiation (ERI), CCSS program: “LLVM-Guided ML for Memory-Aware Hardware Selection in Heterogeneous Systems: Automatic Application-to-Hardware Mapping across CPU, GPU, and FPGA” (submitted; not funded; resubmission planned)
Teaching
Courses Taught
Western New England University: Undergraduate
| CPE 310 | Microprocessors I CISC-to-RISC microprocessor systems; revamped with new material in 2023–24. | Fall 2022 – Fall 2025 |
| CPE 360 | Microprocessors II Redesigned in 2025 around the ATmega328PB: firmware-centric labs on interrupts, peripherals, and device drivers; AMD industry guest lecture. | Spring 2022 – Spring 2025 |
| ENGR 103 | Introduction to Engineering Arduino curriculum redesign (2023–24) and a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W robotics platform for ResQTech-themed design challenges and Botbash. | Fall 2022 – Fall 2025 |
| ENGR 105 | Computer Programming for Engineers MATLAB; redesigned with Write-Pair-Share, pair programming, and vertical non-permanent surfaces (Davis project). | Spring 2022 – Spring 2025 |
| ENGR 110 | Data Acquisition and Processing New preparation: LabVIEW and Raspberry Pi Pico data acquisition with an original AI-enhanced product-design module. | Spring 2026 |
| CPE 491/591 | Special Topics: VLSI Design Full physical-design flow (partitioning to routing, SRAM) with DSCH/Microwind labs and an algorithm-implementation project. | Spring 2024, Spring 2025 |
Western New England University: Graduate
| CPE 691 | Special Topics: VLSI Design New course created; later cross-listed as CPE 491/591. | Spring 2023 |
Engineering Education
Engineering Education & Pedagogy
Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), 2022 – Present
| 2022 | ICE 1.0 STEM Faculty Teaching Workshop (6 days), Denver, CO — participant |
| 2023 | KEEN STEM Faculty Training Conference (3 days), Atlanta, GA — participant |
| 2024 | ICE 2.0 Workshop (6 days), Phoenix, AZ — participant and presenter |
| 2025 | KEEN National Conference, Austin, TX — participant |
| 2025 | Co-organized and led a 3-day KEEN faculty-development workshop at WNE for new College of Engineering faculty; led the Arduino experiential-learning session and mentored participants as they implemented course innovations |
| 2025 | KEEN Leader Meeting, Milwaukee, WI — participant |
Pedagogical Development & Teaching Innovation
- Davis Educational Foundation project (IRB-approved): implemented and studied active-learning interventions in ENGR 105.
- Co-facilitated the Center for Teaching & Learning workshop “Balancing Content Delivery and Student Engagement in Challenging Courses” (Nov 2024).
- Created the WNE Breadboard Simulator (apwne.github.io/WNE-FY-Breadboard-Simulator) for first-year engineering.
- Teaching development: CTL New Faculty Orientation and Difficult Conversations (2022); JEDI NITE (2023); Mental Health First Aid (2023); Social & Emotional Learning, CITI IRB certification, and CliftonStrengths (2024).
Mentoring
Student Research & Design Mentoring
WNE Jet Engine ECU
Lucian Dupont-LeBlanc · Senior capstone · 2025–26
First Prize, Best Senior Design Project in ECE (2026)
- Controls and engine-control-unit architecture for a cross-departmental capstone with Mechanical Engineering and Pratt & Whitney.
Speculative Backpropagation for FPGA-Based Edge AI
Cameron Burnham · Senior capstone · 2025–26
IEEE MWSCAS 2026
- Reusable benchmarking platform for speculative backpropagation on FPGA targets.
Parallelism in FPGA-Based ML Accelerators
Sed Centeno & Christopher Sprague · Senior capstone · 2024–25
IEEE MWSCAS 2025
- Rice University Ghost-in-Machine collaboration: ~15% faster neural-network training on an Octavo Systems FPGA board.
Car Theft Alarm System
Logan Paranto · Senior capstone · 2023–24
- Battery-powered intrusion detector using a pressure sensor, buzzer alarm, and real-time GPS location on an ESP32 microcontroller.
IoT-Controlled Desk for Immersive Tabletop Gaming
Corbin Veitch & Tim Fortune · Senior capstone · 2023–24
- Home Assistant–based desk controlling lights and sound over MQTT from a single embedded processor, with custom Python libraries and UIs.
Botbash First-Year Robotics Competition
ENGR 103 student teams
First place (2025); third place (2024); second place (2023)
- Advised first-year teams designing robots for ResQTech disaster-response challenges on the Pico 2 W platform.
Talks
Invited Talks
Invited research presentation: FPGA-based memory-channel optimization and resource-efficient computing architectures
ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (ABV-IIITM), Gwalior, India (virtual), 2026
“Accelerators & AI: Optimizing Energy for a Sustainable Future”
AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy Faculty Development Program on Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change, India (online), Jan 16–22, 2025
“Electronics Systems: Devices, IC and Applications”
AICTE Short-Term Training Program, Department of ECE, NIT Arunachal Pradesh, India, Mar 14–18, 2022
Service
Professional Service
Conference Leadership
- Technical Track Chair, Global Interdisciplinary Green Cities Conference: 2023 (Augsburg, Germany), 2024 (Springfield, MA), 2025 (Pittsburgh, PA), 2026 (Western New England University)
- Technical Track Chair, 67th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2024
- Technical Program Committee, Security, Surveillance and Artificial Intelligence Conference (ICSSAI), Techno India University, 2023 and 2025
Journal Reviewer
- IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (2)
- IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems
- Microprocessors and Microsystems (Elsevier)
- The Journal of Supercomputing (Springer, 3)
- Scientific Reports (Springer Nature)
- Artificial Intelligence Review (Springer)
- Journal of Intelligent Information Systems (Springer)
- Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing (Springer)
- Silicon (Springer)
- Journal of Low Power Electronics (ASP, 2)
Conference & Other Reviewing
- IEEE MWSCAS 2025 (3 papers) and 2026
- IEEE ISIE 2025
- Int'l Conference on VLSI Design & Embedded Systems 2024 (4 papers)
- Global Interdisciplinary Green Cities Conference 2024
- External Ph.D. dissertation reviewer, Vignan University, India
University & Community
- Engineers Week (E-Week): hands-on robot demonstrations and student-engagement activities (2024, 2025)
- College of Engineering Outreach Committee: Open House, Accepted Students Day, ECE Major Showcase, Homecoming
- Judge: Western Massachusetts Science & Engineering Fair (Region 1); FIRST Robotics Tech Challenge, WNE Qualifier; WNE Engineering Expo
Recognition
Awards & Honors
- Richard Newton Young Fellow Award — Design Automation Conference (DAC), San Francisco, CA, 2018
- KFF Scholarship — KEEN ICE 2.0 Workshop, 2024
- GASP Scholarship — UNC Charlotte (Ph.D.)
- MHRD Scholarship — Government of India (M.Tech.)
- NEC Fellowship — Government of India (B.E.)
- First Prize, Microprox — Inter-collegiate technical festival, 2011
Expertise
Technical Skills
| AI & machine learning | FPGA acceleration of neural-network training; graph neural networks; federated learning; generative-AI–assisted engineering workflows (code development, technical writing, course design) and teaching students to use AI critically |
| Programming | C++, OpenCL, CUDA, MATLAB, Python |
| Hardware description | Verilog, VHDL |
| Hardware platforms | Intel/Altera Stratix V and Arria 10 FPGAs; Xilinx Alveo and Virtex-5 FPGAs; AMD FirePro W7100 GPU; Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W; ATmega328PB; Arduino |
| Cloud | AWS EC2 F1 (Xilinx VU9P), NSF Chameleon Cloud FPGAs |
| Tools | Xilinx Vivado, Vitis and ISE; Intel HLS; Cadence Virtuoso; ModelSim; OrCAD PSpice; DSCH; Microwind; Tanner; LabVIEW; Keil µVision |
| Operating systems | Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS), Windows |