Dr. Zick is the Research Director of Transformational Computing at USC ISI, where he leads efforts to conceive, develop, and demonstrate breakthrough computing technologies that address problems of national importance. His experience spans government-sponsored research and technology development across the defense and commercial sectors, including roles at IBM, Motorola, and two startups.

He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, conducting research in Physically Adaptive Computing under John H. Holland, a pioneer in complex adaptive systems, as a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellow.

His inventions span conventional and unconventional computing architectures, including a microarchitecture instrumental to the Cyrix/IBM 6x86MX microprocessor, a superconducting flux-based memory, a ring-oscillator-based Ising machine, and dynamical methods for solving sparse optimization problems. His work combines algorithmic innovation with practical hardware and systems design. In 2025, he was appointed to the Microsystems Exploratory Council.

News

September 2026: Our computational search framework called Cosm continues to set records for speed and solution quality, harnessing the power of collective switched motion. The results are pointing to potential breakthroughs in search such as large-scale sparse Ising optimization. A research paper is now available at Cosm: orchestrated collective dynamics give rise to rapid computational search at the solution frontier . For more information and for partnering opportunities, please contact [email protected]

We design radically new computing systems that tackle optimization and intelligence problems beyond the reach of traditional architectures. Interests include:

• Accelerated combinatorial optimization, Ising machines, Ising solvers
• Quantum-inspired computing
• AI accelerators - DARPA ScAN
• Collective and physics-inspired computation
• Superconducting digital processing
• Highly parallel implementations using FPGAs, GPUs, CPUs, ASICs

Group capabilities include: binary optimization, FPGA & ASIC design, and the MOSIS Accelerated Prototyping Platform (MAPP). MAPP is a new, re-usable set of infrastructure to enable analog, RF, and digital prototyping. For more information about MAPP, please contact [email protected]. Links: USC ISI's MOSIS 2.0, California DREAMS, Microelectronics Commons

Recent Graduate Student Members

• Akash B.
• Aditi C.
• Om A.
• Arpitha N.
• Dhyanik P.
• Jiahui W.
• Dorothy Q.

Congratulations to Transformational Computing intern Aditi on the USC ECE Outstanding Academic Achievement Award!