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Yassir takes a closer look at a
prototype 3D chip stack |
Who: Yassir Madhour
Location: IBM Research - Zurich
Nationality: Swiss (Iraqi-born)
Focus: 3D Chip Stacking, Two-Phase Flows, Energy-Efficient Computing
Hobby: I'm a movie buff, and have written and directed several theater plays. I'm currently working on a new web-series show called “Who’s Next” -- 12 minute episodes to watch for free online, where people vote for us to continue the story line or not. Check out the first teaser trailer.
Career at IBM Research: I never really thought about chip cooling, but I found some charts lying around at EPFL during my studies. After flipping through them I saw that IBM was involved which got me excited because I knew that I wanted to work in industrial research.
I wasn't always convinced that a PhD was for me. But after coming to IBM I learned a great deal in only my first six months. When I extrapolated this over four years it quickly became obvious that I should stay here and get the degree.
To discover more about his research read this IEEE paper which was awarded the 2012 outstanding paper award at the International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology. Also check out his poster here.
Best Advice: Network, network, network— in fact try and connect with a new person every day. Sure, lots of projects and jobs or internships are posted online, but if you are passionate about your topic and you can share that passion with a professor or a senior scientist, only good things can happen. It worked for me.”
And diversify -- don’t focus only on one very specific area so early in your career. Give yourself options by learning areas on the periphery of your field. Within the IBM team we are focused on energy efficient data centers, but this also has applications in solar energy and water desalination.
Connect with Yassir on LinkedIn.
Labels: datacenter, energy, EPFL, IBM Research - Zurich, solar energy