As AI technologies—particularly generative AI—rapidly reshape society, their growing energy demands pose a critical challenge. In the circuits and systems (CAS) field, much effort has been devoted to designing high-performance and low-power electronic systems, yet their energy use after deployment often receives little attention. This talk introduces how core expertise in the CAS community, such as modeling, optimization, and implementation, can be extended beyond semiconductors to cyber-physical systems (CPS) for reducing energy demand in society. A case study on HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) systems in buildings, which account for nearly 40% of building energy use, illustrates this approach. The work spans from system modeling to real-world deployment and validation. The experience highlights the potential of CAS thinking to address energy challenges and contribute to sustainable, real-world solutions.
Ittetsu Taniguchi received B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees from Osaka University in 2004, 2006, and 2009, respectively. From 2007 to 2008, he was an international scholar at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (IMEC), Belgium. In 2009, he joined the College of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University as an assistant professor, and became a lecturer in 2014. In 2017, he joined the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University (renamed The University of Osaka in April 2025) as an associate professor. His research interests include system-level design methodology of embedded systems and cyber-physical systems. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, IEICE, and IPSJ.
In this talk, I will start by introducing the recent revolution of intelligent image processing. Then, I will go through the accompanied evolution of deep learning models, from regression-based to diffusion-based approaches, and highlight the corresponding design challenges for hardware accelerators. Finally, I will present three of our recent accelerator chips as case studies demonstrating how high-performance inference can be achieved for high-quality regression-based models: STEP [ISSCC’25] for 8K-UHD spatial-temporal super-resolution, Cattus [VLSIC’25] for 4K-UHD multi-function image processing, and EDA [ISSCC’25] for HD-resolution small-object detection.
Chao-Tsung Huang received the PhD degree in electronics engineering from National Taiwan University in 2005. He is now with National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) as a Professor. His research interests mainly focus on digital IC design and computing architecture for computer vison applications. He has published several research papers in related fields: ISSCC/VLSIC/JSSC (solid-state circuits), ISCA/MICRO (computer architecture), and CVPR/ICCV/TPAMI (computer vision). He now serves as Associate Editor for IEEE OJCAS.
One of the biggest challenges in AI-related applications is to equip AI hardware into applications where the power/energy source is limited, such as battery-powered autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). Novel DLA featured with high degree of hardware parallelism is disclosed in this investigation so that the throughput would not be degraded due to the limited power and the simplification of DNN/CNN architectures besides the adoption of a light-weight AI algorithm. Beyond the applications in water, the booming of low-power AI hardware also drives the development of other solutions besides CMOS processes.
Chua-Chin Wang (SM’04) obtained his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1992 from Stony Brook, New York, State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA. Memory and logic circuit design, communication circuit design, AI circuits, and interfacing I/O circuits are among his research interests.
He was CEO of the Operation Center of Industry—University Cooperation, NSYSU, from 2012 to 2014. He held the position of Vice President of the Office of Industrial Collaboration and Continuing Education Affairs at NSYSU from 2014 to 2015. He was designated as Dean of the College of Engineering from 2014 to 2017. He served as Director of the Underwater Vehicle Research and Development Center at NSYSU from 2018 to 2024. He was VP of Research and Development of NSYSU from 2021 to 2024 He was bestowed with the Distinguished Engineering Professor designation by the Chinese Institute of Engineers, the Fellow designation by IET, and the Outstanding Research Award by NSYSU in 2012. His accomplishments earned him the ASE Chair Professor designation in 2013. He won Future Tech Award of Taiwan NSTC in 2021. He was recognized as top 2% researchers since 2021 for life long.