Profile Photo

Modini Ayyagari

Computer Engineering Doctoral Student at North Carolina State University

Exploring the dual role of physical side-channels in hardware security, uncovering their potential to be used as both attacks and defense strategies in AI/ML Hardware.

About Me

Hello, I am Modini Ayyagari, currently pursuing a Doctorate Degree in Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University under the guidance of Dr. Aydin Aysu at the Hardware Cyberthreat Research (HECTOR) Lab.

My primary research interest lies in the realm of hardware security. I am currently in my first year of pursuing a Ph.D., focusing on understanding the fundamentals of hardware security, physical side-channels, and fault attacks on cryptographic and AI/ML hardware. In my research, I am investigating the dual role of physical side-channels in hardware security, exploring their potential to be both offensive and defensive strategies for AI/ML semiconductor chips.

Before beginning my PhD, I accumulated 4.5 years of industry experience as an RTL Design Engineer at Infineon Technologies. During this time, I developed Soft IPs for CPU Sub-Systems, cryptographic accelerators, memory controllers, data transfer engines, and ML accelerators.

Education

Ph.D. Expected 2028
Computer Engineering
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
M.Tech 2022
Microelectronics
Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
B.Tech 2019
Electronics and Communication Engineering
Institute of Technology Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Experience

Research Assistant

HECTOR Lab, Electronics and Computer Engineering Department, North Carolina State University

July 2024 - Present

Staff Electrical Design Engineer

Infineon Technologies + Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

January 2019 - June 2024

Publications

Efficient Implementation of Pooling Operation for AI Accelerators

Modini Ayyagari; Vijay Deep Bhatt; Ashutosh Pandey

2022 IEEE International Conference for Women in Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship (ICWITE), 2022

IEEE publication

Contact

Email: mayyaga2@ncsu.edu