The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded $599,982 to Md Rubel Ahmed, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science at Louisiana Tech, for a three-year research project aimed at making AI hardware design more accessible. The award, announced as the university prepares to open a new 15-station NVIDIA AI Laboratory in Nethken Hall this fall, supports work that could help researchers outside the traditional chip design community build specialized AI hardware.
The project, titled Elements: Open Infrastructure for Automated Synthesis of AI Models to Hardware, targets a core bottleneck in AI development: connecting AI software to the hardware that runs it. Designing custom hardware for AI currently requires multiple complex software tools and deep engineering expertise. Ahmed's team is building an open, unified platform that automates much of that process while keeping the resulting hardware accurate and efficient.
The research creates a shared semantic-preserving "language" that lets engineers transform a software description of an AI model into a specialized, optimized hardware implementation. The goal is to make it easier for researchers and industry to develop faster, more energy-efficient AI systems without requiring chip design expertise.
Collaboration and institutional support
Ahmed is working with collaborators at the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida on the project. He credited both groups and his students for their contributions to the award.
"This project will make AI hardware design more accessible through an end-to-end open-source framework, enabling researchers beyond the traditional chip design community to develop AI hardware," said Ahmed.
Growing AI investment at Louisiana Tech
The grant adds to the College of Engineering and Science's expanding AI focus. Starting this fall, students and faculty will use the new NVIDIA AI Laboratory, which provides advanced computing resources for instruction, research, and collaboration across engineering and science disciplines.
Dr. Ankunda Kiremire, senior lecturer and program chair of Computer Science, said the lab and a new AI/ML concentration will help position the program for the field's direction. "This research, along with our upcoming AI lab and new AI/ML concentration, will help position our students and faculty to stay at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field," he said. "Together, these efforts will help ensure that our students are prepared for the changing demands of the AI industry and the opportunities that await them after graduation."
Why this matters for science and research professionals
For researchers who work with AI models but not chip design, this project directly addresses a practical problem: getting models onto efficient hardware without learning an entirely new engineering discipline. An open-source, automated framework could let more labs build custom AI accelerators for specific research workloads, rather than settling for off-the-shelf hardware that may not fit the job. It also signals that NSF funding is backing tools designed to make hardware development more accessible, which may be worth tracking if your work involves deploying custom AI systems. The NSF award is the latest sign of the college's growing investment in AI research and education, alongside the new laboratory and curriculum changes announced for this fall.
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