Tufts University

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Computer systems store information in memories; the specific physical mechanisms of storing and moving these ones and zeroes are currently under intense study by the research community. The successful design of a memory system provides a balance between cost and performance by applying a hierarchical combination of memory technologies, circuits, and architectures. Historically, the design of such systems has consistently relied on specific technologies to serve a specific function in the hierarchy — static random access memory (SRAM) for on-chip caches and scratchpad memories, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) for main memory, and magnetic disks or flash drives for storage. More recently, many ideas for different memory designs have emerged at varying stages of development and deployment, each with its costs and benefits. It is hard for a hardware designer or programmer to predict how a specific new memory will affect the speed and energy consumption of a computing system. MemSysExplorer will provide the research community with the tools required to explore this new complex design space and identify principled design solutions that satisfy the requirements of different applications and systems. The recent growth in data-intensive applications, heterogeneous architecture design, and new memory technologies has drastically changed both design requirements and the landscape of design options available to meet them. This project develops a cross-community design space exploration and evaluation framework offering researchers the capability of providing design inputs and simulating the resulting memory system solutions at different levels of the design stack, which are broadly defined as 1) application design space, 2) system design space, and 3) technology design space. Users can configure each level independently and evaluate the holistic impact of specific design optimizations. The framework's flexibility in generating a large variety of design solutions is supplemented by an integrated web-based data visualization tool to simplify the result navigation and filter to identify optimal design points. The MemSysExplorer framework introduces the opportunity to conduct multidisciplinary research leveraging a common simulation and evaluation platform. The MemSysExplorer project brings together researchers from industry and academia with a range of specialties from memory devices, circuits, computer architecture, computer systems, programming languages, and compilers. Through a steering committee, public tutorials, and online resources, MemSysExplorer will enable researchers to collaborate across disciplines and contribute to communal tools and datasets. The openly accessible and easy-to-use web-based interface will introduce students and early practitioners to new computing research problems in which memory plays a leading role. MemSysExplorer is primarily developed and supported by a team of researchers at Tufts University, Harvard University, and Amherst College. The project website will be updated regularly with example code, detailed models, tutorials as well as a calendar of public tutorials and outreach events. Resources and general information about the MemSysExplorer framework are available at https://memsysexplorer.eecs.tufts.edu This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-05

Abstract Antitrust enforcement research has mostly focused on price and quantity collusion, even though antitrust law encompasses more ways to collude. This project will explore the causes and welfare consequences of automakers colluding on the adoption of emission control technologies. The project focuses on automakers that have been alleged to have colluded on adopting Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) tanks that were too small to effectively clean up nitrogen oxide (NOx), a major contributor to air pollution. The project will investigate how the alleged collusion by automakers concealed violation of NOx emissions regulation. The project will quantify the effects of the alleged collusion on NOx pollution damages, car buyer surplus, and firm profits. These effects inform the proper amount of antitrust penalties to remedy welfare damages of such collisions. Finally, the project will examine whether and how environmental and antitrust regulation can mitigate inefficiencies from technology collusion. The project will build and estimate a structural model of consumer vehicle demand and automaker technology choice, and simulate counterfactual policies. The project utilizes a comprehensive new data set on vehicle prices, sales, and characteristics. A novel feature of the employed structural model is that the probability of non-compliance detection for one firm depends on other firms' behavior as well as its own. A more dispersed distribution in choices may cause a regulator to question why some firms need to use large DEF tanks while others apparently manage with small tanks. By coordinating on small tanks, the automakers simultaneously reduce the probability of being detected by the regulator and make their vehicles more attractive to car buyers (as the tank reduces cargo space, a valuable vehicle feature). With the model and estimates of consumer tastes and automaker costs, the project will conduct counterfactual simulation to explore the following issues: (i) quantify the benefit of strengthening the enforcement of emission standards; (ii) calculate the anti-competitive damage of technology collusion compared to the competitive counterfactual; and (iii) identify the demand and supply conditions most conducive to technology collusion. The project advances the economics research and has regulatory and policy implications on firm collusion, antitrust enforcement, and industry standards. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Other NSERC · FY 2024

cellular agriculture, precision fermentation, protein structure-function, protein stability, milk proteins, haptocorrin, infant formula, functional food, cobalamin, Bombyx mori