2026 Viterbi Keynote Lecture - Paul H. Siegel, Thursday, April 16th. Reception at 3:30pm EEB Courtyard, Lecture at 4pm - EEB 132

Speaker: Paul H. Siegel, Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego

Talk Title: Coding Theory, Memory, and AI: A Harmonious Trio

Abstract: For more than three quarters of a century, coding theory and computer memory technology have shared a virtuous cycle  of mutual progress. Novel physical mechanisms for storing information have inspired the development of new coding methods that, in turn, have enabled the realization of these  memory paradigms in increasingly capable data storage systems. The recent renaissance of machine learning has added another dimension to this relationship. In this talk, we will survey evolving trends in the harmonious interplay of coding theory, computer memory, and AI. Examples include neural-assisted decoding algorithms that improve the robustness of storage devices, coding techniques optimized by machine learning that ensure the functional correctness of neural network-based AI models, generative AI tools  that facilitate code optimization in flash memory systems, and analog error-correcting codes for memory-based AI accelerators. 

Biography: Paul H. Siegel is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego. His research interests are in the areas of information theory and coding, with applications in data storage and communications. He received the S.B. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from MIT in 1975 and 1979, respectively, and held a Chaim Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Courant Institute, New York University. He was with the IBM Research Division in San Jose, California from 1980 until he joined the faculty at UCSD in 1995. He holds an endowed chair at the Center for Memory and Recording Research where he served as director from 2000 to 2011. He was co-recipient of the 1992 IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award and the 1993 IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize Paper Award. He was the 2015 Padovani Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society.  He served as Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and as guest editor of special issues on aspects of coding theory and data storage in two IEEE Transactions, two IEEE Journals, and IEEE BITS Magazine. Prof. Siegel is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Fellow of the IEEE. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008. 

Host: Richard Leahy

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