Approximate computing exploits the fact that there are many error-resilient applications (such as image processing, deep learning, and data mining) in which the quality of the result can be traded for energy.
Approximate computing exploits the fact that there are many error-resilient applications (such as image processing, deep learning, and data mining) in which the quality of the result can be traded for energy. An open problem is how to effectively approximate hardware and software, i.e., simplifying or modifying digital circuits and programs so that the resulting application error is acceptable for the end-user and the energy requirements are satisfied for challenging deployments on resource-constrained devices. We will present a design automation method capable of creating high-quality implementations of approximate digital circuits.
The method is based on multi-objective genetic programming. It employs various techniques such as relaxed equivalence checking, optimized search strategies, and genetic operators to eliminate scalability problems typical for design automation approaches. The method was used to design an open-source library of approximate adders and multipliers (EvoApproxLib) and other resource-aware computational primitives such as image filters, hash functions, and convolutional neural networks.
Lukáš Sekanina is a Full Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Systems at the Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology. He was a visiting professor with Pennsylvania State University (2001), Universidad Politécnia de Madrid (2012), and a visiting researcher with the Department of Informatics, University of Oslo (2001). Prof. Sekanina was a Fulbright Scholar working with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, in 2004. He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation and the Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines Journal and chaired TPCs of several conferences focused on evolutionary computing and circuit design. He (co)authored over 200 papers, mainly on evolutionary circuit design, evolvable hardware, approximate computing, and one patent. His research was awarded multiple times at international conferences and competitions (e.g., the Humies at GECCO). He is the recipient of the Czech Science Foundation President Award 2017.
Its program consists of a one-hour lecture followed by a discussion. The lecture is based on an (internationally) exceptional or remarkable achievement of the lecturer, presented in a way which is comprehensible and interesting to a broad computer science community. The lectures are in English.
The seminar is organized by the organizational committee consisting of Roman Barták (Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics), Jaroslav Hlinka (Czech Academy of Sciences, Computer Science Institute), Michal Chytil, Pavel Kordík (CTU in Prague, Faculty of Information Technologies), Michal Koucký (Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics), Jan Kybic (CTU in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering), Michal Pěchouček (CTU in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering), Jiří Sgall (Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics), Vojtěch Svátek (University of Economics, Faculty of Informatics and Statistics), Michal Šorel (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Information Theory and Automation), Tomáš Werner (CTU in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering), and Filip Železný (CTU in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering)
The idea to organize this seminar emerged in discussions of the representatives of several research institutes on how to avoid the undesired fragmentation of the Czech computer science community.
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