John Davis

Education

Harvard University (2022-Present)

• Program: PhD in Electrical Engineering
• Research Area: Integrated Photonics

Tufts University (2018-2022)

• Major: Electrical Engineering
• Minor: Physics
• GPA: 3.9

Research

What I Do

I bring a device physics perspective to hardware systems design. In a world where demands for system performance are ever increasing, traditional CMOS is giving diminishing returns. I believe that we can significatly improve system performance through careful optimization and rigorous characterization of the most basic building blocks. With decades of industry tools targeting aging transistor technology, making the transition to these new devices is a daunting task. My research focuses on creating new techniques to go from device level physics to full fledged systems integration. My mission is to make integrated photonic circuits a standard part of future microchips.

What is Integrated Photonics?

Integrated photonics takes the same manufacturing process used to make microchips and repurposes it to make circuits that carry light instead of electricity.

Advantages

The light wavelengths we work with are on the order of micrometers, but our manufacturing capabilities allow us to make structures on the order of nanometers. This sub-wavelength control lets us make precise and robust structures with where the light can interact with itself.

This opens the door to application specific circuits that are immune to the RF interference which is a huge issue for electronics. Light also loses much less energy than electrons when traveling through a circuit. As a result, photonic circuits are more power efficient.

Future Outlook

Photonics is in a period of intense growth where the limits are the laws of physics and the human imagination. Within the next decade, every flagship device you own will contain some sort of photonic chip.

Audio Hardware

Mission

I deploy small high-performance processors into standalone audio devices, giving them the performance of a large audio workstation while remaining significantly cheaper.

Flagship Product – TWINS

TWINS is the result of over 2 years of R&D work developing a high-performance audio system that fits into the palm of my hand.

Skills

Computational Thinking

I specialize in putting computers to use in real-world applications. This is especially lucrative today with the proliferation of single-chip microcontrollers that can be deployed in the field for negligible cost. I work with systems ranging from simple microcontrollers to full fledged server compute farms spanning a wide range of application areas.

Low-level intuition

Software runs on hardware. Hardware changes every year to add features and improvements. To maximize performance, software needs to make use of these hardware features. As a developer, I look beyond the software and can deliver custom solutions that fully utilize hardware features to meet and exceed performance goals.

Hardware/Software Debugging

Debugging methodologies are diverse and there is no “right way” that will guarantee that you will find every issue. Over the years, I have collected a multitude of debugging methods to throw at each problem. In general, the goal is to isolate each part of the system and perform tests to verify correct functionality for all inputs and outputs. Aided by educated guesses, this overarching strategy can quickly pinpoint where the error lies, but it requires a solid understanding of the inner workings of the system. Because of this, I attribute my debugging abilities to my knack for quickly learning what’s going on under the hood.