Rate My Professor Matthew Guthaus

Matthew Guthaus is a Professor in Computer Science and Engineering and an Adjunct Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his BSE in Computer Engineering and PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan. As the lead principal investigator of the VLSI Design and Automation Lab, established in Fall 2006, Guthaus specializes in physical design, circuits, and algorithms research for computer-aided design tools targeting low-power circuits, variability and reliability, thermal-aware design, and error-tolerant circuit design. His work intersects with the Hardware Systems Collective at UCSC and has produced alumni employed at leading companies including NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, Oracle, and Cadence.

Guthaus's research encompasses electronic design automation enhanced by machine learning and graph neural networks, such as GATMesh for clock mesh timing analysis, GAT-Steiner for routing prediction, and effective capacitance modeling. He has developed open-source memory compilers including OpenRAM, a framework for random-access memories jointly with Oklahoma State University, and OpenGCRAM for gain cell architectures optimized for AI workloads. Additional areas include current-mode clocking to minimize power and switching noise, resonant and charge-recovery clocking techniques like distributed LC resonant grids and switched capacitor quasi-adiabatic clocks, and electromagnetic interference mitigation through dynamic EMI shifting and clock tree optimization. Key publications comprise “OpenRAM: An Open-Source Memory Compiler” (ICCAD 2016), “GAT-Steiner: Rectilinear Steiner Minimal Tree Prediction Using GNNs” (ICCAD 2024), “GATMesh: Clock Mesh Timing Analysis using Graph Neural Networks” (arXiv 2025), “Distributed LC Resonant Clock Grid Synthesis” (TCAS-I 2012), and “HCDN: Hybrid-Mode Clock Distribution Networks” (TCAS-I 2018). He received a Google Faculty Research Award in 2020 for computer memory and chip design promoting open-source hardware, led an NSF steering committee report in 2022 on hardware workforce revitalization, and contributed to UCSC's record patent awards, including two personal patents in 2019. Guthaus delivered a talk on OpenROAD’s evolving optimizer at ORConf 2025.