NEXT Lab

Research Interests

• Domain-Specific Architecture (DSA) Design for Algorithm Acceleration (Scientific Computing and Optimization Algorithms, including Machine Learning)

• Mixed-Signal Circuit Design (Analog, Digital, and Optics) for Sensor and Sensing Systems

• Reconfigurable Computing on both FPGA and CGRA Devices

• Applied Machine Learning 

A Bit More

• Interested in Digital Design? Try this self-paced tutorial https://sites.google.com/g.clemson.edu/nextlabdoc/instructions/fpgasochls

  • This has been tested by numerous undergraduate and graduate students. You're welcome to use them, and let us know what you think. 

• NEXT Lab worked with Cadence to train next-generation semiconductor engineers https://sites.google.com/g.clemson.edu/clemson-cadence-project/home

• NEXT Lab published papers in leading Instrumentation Journals, including IEEE TIM (Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement), IEEE/OSA JLT (Journal of Lightwave Technologies), IEEE JSTQE (Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics), etc. 

• NEXT Lab published papers on top Reconfigurable Computing and Architecture Conferences, including ACM/IEEE ISCA (International Symposium on Computer Architecture), ACM/SIGDA FPGA, IEEE FCCM (Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines), FPL (The International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications), etc. 

• Check our Publication List

• NEXT Lab alumni are working in the areas of RF design, chip design, FPGA design, and system design with technology giants such as Apple, Amazon, Analog Device, Infineon, etc.

• NEXT Lab is well funded by NSF, ONR, NASA, and industry partners.

• NEXT Lab is currently recruiting Ugrad researchers in the area of reconfigurable computing. 

• NEXT Lab is currently recruiting Grad researchers in the area of reconfigurable computing. Application Process:

  • Start your application: The Clemson graduate application is free. You can begin your application using the following link: https://www.clemson.edu/graduate/admissions/preparing-to-apply/index.html (Be sure to mention my name in your application)

  • Application Review: Once submitted, your application package will be thoroughly reviewed by the faculty committee.

  • Follow-Up: Please email your CV to Dr. Tao Wei at twei2@clemson.edu for further discussion.

In the News

• 05/07/2025 Alfred (Zhenyu Xu) delivered a talk at FCCM - Open Cloud Testbed Tutorial and User Workshop, Fayetteville, Arkansas

  • "A Stencil-Computing Architecture Achieving Linearly Scalable Performance on OCT"

• 05/01/2025 Teamed up with Dr. Judson Ryckman's group at Clemson, NEXT Lab received NSF funds to work on accelerated optical resonator design and optimization through algorithm-HW co-design.

• 04/20/2025 Teamed up with many groups at Clemson, NEXT Lab received a NVIDIA H200 cluster (8 machines in a pod; hosted on Palmetto Cluster) from CU-MRI program.

• 04/02/2025 The Clemson Cadence Project has had an exciting year! Three students accepted offers for Cadence's formal intern program in San Jose, two students received and accepted offers for Cadence's new college grad program. Congratulations!

• 04/01/2025 4 Ugrad students accepted summer internship offers from DOE ANL. Congratulations!

• 03/05/2025 Kazutomo Yoshi from DOE ANL visited NEXT Lab. Welcome!

• 03/01/2025 Tao Wei delivered a talk at Workshop on Domain-Specialized FPGAs, Monterey, CA, USA.

  • "Leveraging FPGA Technology for Accelerating Analog Circuit Design in Power Electronics and Optics "

• 02/28/2025 Michelle (Miaoxiang) Yu presented her paper at ACM/SIGDA ISFPGA, Monterey, CA, USA.

  • "Tile-Level Pipeline for Linear Scalable Stencil Computation on AMD AI Engines (Short Paper)"

• 02/01/2025 Qin Ling joined NEXT Lab as a Visiting student from JMU. Welcome!

• 01/15/2025 15 Ugrad students join NEXT Lab to work on Ugrad research via CI and honor thesis. Welcome!

• 01/01/2025 Dingjiang (Alan) Yan joined NEXT Lab as a Grad student. Welcome!

• 09/09/2024 Andrew O'Rourke joined NEXT Lab to work on an Ugrad honor project. Welcome!

• 09/01/2024 Teamed up with Dr. Ken Yang's group at URI, NEXT Lab received planning funds from NSF to work on an efficient long-sequence ML model through algorithm-HW co-design.

• 08/27/2024 Simon Walker successfully defended his thesis under the title of "PQC: Implementing MiRitH (MinRank in the Head) on FPGA". Congratulations!

• 08/26/2024 Matthew Jett, Charles Kowalski, and Samuel Bren joined NEXT Lab to work on Ugrad honor projects. Welcome!

• 08/25/2024 Zachary Moser joined NEXT Lab as a Grad student. Welcome!

• 08/20/2024 Shouyu Du joined NEXT Lab as a Grad student. Welcome!

• 08/01/2024 NEXT Lab received funding from ONR under the project name of "Time-efficient Machine Learning (ML)-aided Electric Design Automation (EDA) for Power Electronics Building Block".

• 07/26/2024 We presented a paper at the 35th IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures and Processors (ASAP2024), Hong Kong.

  • "TwinStep Network (TwNet): a Neuron-Centric Architecture Achieving Rapid Training, Zhenyu Xu, Miaoxiang Yu, Jillian Cai, Qing Yang and Tao Wei"

• 05/01/2024 The Clemson Cadence Project has had an exciting year! Six students accepted offers for Cadence's formal intern program in San Jose, three students received offers for Cadence's new college grad program, and three students accepted jobs with Cadence. Congratulations to everyone who got these coveted roles!

• 03/04/2024 Alfred (Zhenyu) Xu presented his paper at ACM/SIGDA ISFPGA, Monterey, CA, USA.

  • "An FPGA-Enabled Framework for Rapid Automated Design of Photonic Integrated Circuits, Zhenyu Xu, Miaoxiang Yu, Jillian Cai, Saddam Gafsi, Judson Douglas Ryckman, Qing Yang, Tao Wei"

• 02/16/2024 Zhiheng (Zane) Ni joined NEXT Lab as a visiting Ugrad student from JMU, Xiamen, China. Welcome!

• 01/16/2024 Simon Walker joined NEXT Lab as a visiting Grad student from OST Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. Welcome!

• 12/15/2023 Kelsey (Yazhe) Zhang joined NEXT Lab as a Grad researcher. Welcome!

• 11/13/2023 Braeden Waugh joined NEXT Lab as an Ugrad researcher. Welcome!

• 11/08/2023 Dr. Tao Wei delivered an invited talk to the Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) AI Workshop.

• 11/03/2023 Alfred (Zhenyu) Xu presented his paper at IEEE Cluster 2023, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

  • "A Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) solver with linearly scalable performance in an FPGA cluster, Zhenyu Xu, Miaoxiang Yu, Jillian Cai, Qing Yang, and Tao Wei"

• 09/27/2023 NEXT Lab led the effort in the Cadence Night Event, which served to celebrate Clemson's partnership with Cadence, the opening of the new Cadence Lab, and the kickoff for the Clemson Cadence Challenge.

  • Website: https://sites.google.com/g.clemson.edu/clemson-cadence-project/home

• 09/19/2023 Dr. Tao Wei delivered an invited talk to the Amazon Wireless Summit 2023.

• 09/17/2023 Alfred (Zhenyu) Xu received the NSF Travel Grant for IEEE Cluster 2023. Congratulations!

• 07/19/2023 One paper was nominated for the Best Paper Award of the 34th IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures and Processors (ASAP2023). Congratulations!

  • "A Novel FPGA-Based Circuit Simulator for Accelerating Reinforcement Learning-Based Design of Power Converters, Zhenyu Xu, Miaoxiang Yu, Qing Yang, Yeonho Jeong, Jillian Cai, and Tao Wei"

  • Website: https://www.asap2023.org/

• 06/09/2023 Dr. Tao Wei serves as the coordinator of the Clemson Cadence Project.

  • Website: https://sites.google.com/g.clemson.edu/clemson-cadence-project/home

• 06/09/2023 NEXT Lab website is alive! NEXT Lab moved from the University of Rhode Island to Clemson University (Warmer Here!).