Publications

Rebooting Computing and Low-Power Image Recognition Challenge

Lu, Yung H.; Kadin, Alan M.; Berg, Alexander C.; Conte, Thomas M.; DeBenedictis, Erik; Garg, Rachit; Gingade, Ganesh; Hoang, Bichlien; Huang, Yongzhen; Li, Boxun; Liu, Jingyu; Liu, Wei; Mao, Huizi; Peng, Junran; Tang, Tianqi; Track, Elie K.; Wang, Jingqiu; Wang, Tao; Wang, Yu; Yao, Jun

Rebooting Computing (RC) is an effort in the IEEE to rethink future computers. RC started in 2012 by the co-chairs, Elie Track (IEEE Council on Superconductivity) and Tom Conte (Computer Society). RC takes a holistic approach, considering revolutionary as well as evolutionary solutions needed to advance computer technologies. Three summits have been held in 2013 and 2014, discussing different technologies, from emerging devices to user interface, from security to energy efficiency, from neuromorphic to reversible computing. The first part of this paper introduces RC to the design automation community and solicits revolutionary ideas from the community for the directions of future computer research. Energy efficiency is identified as one of the most important challenges in future computer technologies. The importance of energy efficiency spans from miniature embedded sensors to wearable computers, from individual desktops to data centers. To gauge the state of the art, the RC Committee organized the first Low Power Image Recognition Challenge (LPIRC). Each image contains one or multiple objects, among 200 categories. A contestant has to provide a working system that can recognize the objects and report the bounding boxes of the objects. The second part of this paper explains LPIRC and the solutions from the top two winners.