PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ramesh Karri

Ramesh Karri is a hardware-security researcher who studies what large language models can do for chip designers and for attackers. After earning a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of California, San Diego in 1993, he taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and joined the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 1998. He co-founded NYU's Center for Cyber Security in 2009, became an IEEE Fellow in 2020, and was inducted into the IEEE HOST Hall of Fame in 2025. His AI work includes a 2021 study of the security of GitHub Copilot's code and Chip-Chat, a 2023 project in which he and colleagues designed a microprocessor in conversation with a language model. He is professor and chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at NYU Tandon.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 1985–1993

    Degrees in India and San Diego

    He earns a B.E. in electronics and communication engineering at Andhra University in 1985 and an M.Tech. in computer science at the University of Hyderabad in 1988. At the University of California, San Diego, he completes an M.S. in computer engineering in 1992 and a Ph.D. in computer science in 1993.

  2. 1993–1998

    Assistant professor at UMass Amherst

    He becomes an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1993. From 1997 to 1998, he is a member of technical staff at the Lucent Bell Labs Engineering Research Center in Princeton, working on on-line built-in self test of VLSI circuits.

  3. 1998–2011

    Test-port attacks at Polytechnic

    He joins the Polytechnic Institute of New York University as an associate professor in 1998 and becomes a professor in 2011. In 2002, he and his colleagues produce the first research on attack-resilient chip architecture, showing that the test and debug ports of integrated circuits can be used by hackers.

  4. 2008–2009

    Security challenge and cyber center

    In 2008, he launches the CSAW Embedded Security Challenge, a student hardware-hacking competition. In 2009, he co-founds NYU's Center for Cyber Security, which he co-directs from 2016 to 2024.

  5. 2020

    Named an IEEE Fellow

    He is named a Fellow of the IEEE in February 2020 for his contributions to and leadership in trustworthy electronic hardware, including work on split manufacturing and on vulnerabilities in digital microfluidic biochips. He already holds a Humboldt Fellowship and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

  6. 2021–2024

    Copilot security and Chip Chat

    In 2021, he coauthors "Asleep at the Keyboard?", which tests GitHub Copilot on 89 scenarios and finds about 40% of the 1,689 programs it produces vulnerable. In 2023, he coauthors Chip-Chat, a case study in which a hardware engineer co-architects an 8-bit processor with a conversational language model and sends it to tapeout. The resulting QTcore-C1 chip, designed in conversation with GPT-4, is fabricated after the team wins Efabless's AI Generated Open-Source Silicon Design Challenge in June 2023, and NYU Tandon announces it in January 2024.

  7. 2025

    IEEE HOST Hall of Fame

    In June 2025, he is inducted into the IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST) Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes his seminal work on logic obfuscation, logic encryption and logic locking, and his contributions to hardware Trojans and secure manufacturing.

  8. As of October 2026

    Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    He is professor and chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at NYU Tandon. In July 2025, EnIGMA, a language-model agent for solving cybersecurity challenges that lists him as a senior author, is presented at ICML 2025. In 2025, an IEEE Security & Privacy study with him as senior author reports that large language models can help novices and experts create hardware Trojans.

Career

  1. Since 1998New York UniversityAssociate Professor, Co-founder
  2. 1997–1998Lucent TechnologiesMember of Technical Staff
  3. 1993–1998University of Massachusetts AmherstAssistant Professor

Education

  1. 1993University of California, San DiegoPh.D. in computer science
  2. 1992University of California, San DiegoM.S. in computer engineering
  3. 1988University of HyderabadM.Tech. in computer science
  4. 1985Andhra UniversityB.E. in electronics and communication engineering

From the biography.

  1. 23% of people shaping AI who left a university for a company later returned to a universityIncludes Ramesh Karri. We estimate that 468 of the 2,011 people shaping AI who left a university for a company (23%) later returned to a university after a median of 5 years, and 163 of 829 (20%) made the reverse round trip.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes New York University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes New York University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  4. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes New York University. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Ramesh Karri yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Ramesh Karri | NYU Tandon School of Engineering engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Leading NYU Tandon hardware security researcher named an IEEE fellow | NYU Tandon School of Engineering engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Electrical and Computer Engineering | NYU Tandon School of Engineering engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Ramesh Karri - NYU Center for Cyber Security cyber.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Ramesh Karri | IEEE CEDA ieee-ceda.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Code Contributions arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Chip-Chat: Challenges and Opportunities in Conversational Hardware Design arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. From “Chip Chat” to “Chip In Hand”: NYU Tandon researchers fabricate the world’s first chip designed through conversations with an artificial-intelligence platform | NYU Tandon School of Engineering engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Karri Inducted into IEEE HOST Hall of Fame - NYU Center for Cyber Security cyber.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. NYU Tandon researchers develop AI agent that solves cybersecurity challenges autonomously | NYU Tandon School of Engineering engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. AI tools can help hackers plant hidden flaws in computer chips, study finds | NYU Tandon School of Engineering engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.