Dr. Jiaqi Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He received his B.Eng. degree in Microelectronics from Sun Yat-sen University(中山大学) and his Ph.D. degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

His research focuses on photonic computing, optical interconnects, domain-specific hardware accelerators, neuromorphic computing, and integrated circuit design. In particular, he is interested in the device–circuit–architecture co-design of silicon photonic systems, including microring-resonator-based computing and communication circuits, wavelength-division-multiplexed optical architectures, photonic chiplets, co-packaged optics, and photonic accelerators for artificial intelligence workloads. His work also explores the integration of photonic devices with high-speed electronic circuits to build energy-efficient computing and communication systems.

Dr. Liu is currently recruiting Ph.D., MRes, and undergraduate research students in the following two directions:

1. Photonic Computing and Optical Interconnects

This research direction investigates next-generation computing and communication architectures based on integrated photonics. Topics include silicon photonic computing, optical matrix multiplication, photonic accelerators for artificial intelligence, optical interconnect chiplets, wavelength-division multiplexing, microring resonators, Mach–Zehnder interferometers, photonic memory and computing devices, co-packaged optics, and system-level hardware–software co-design.

Students will have opportunities to work across multiple levels, from photonic device modelling and circuit design to architecture exploration, system simulation, chip implementation, packaging, testing, and application demonstration. Potential applications include Transformer models, spiking neural networks, hyperdimensional computing, computer vision, high-performance computing, and data-centre interconnects.

2. High-Speed Digital and Analog Circuit Design for Photonic Computing and Optical Interconnects

This research direction focuses on the electronic circuits required to drive, control, and read out high-speed photonic systems. Research topics include high-speed optical modulator drivers, transimpedance amplifiers, limiting amplifiers, clock and data recovery circuits, SerDes interfaces, digital signal processing circuits, high-speed data converters, thermal tuning and feedback-control circuits, power management, and mixed-signal integrated circuits.

The objective is to develop high-performance electronic–photonic co-designed systems for optical computing and optical communication. Students may participate in circuit modelling, schematic design, layout, post-layout simulation, silicon photonic PDK-based co-design, chip tape-out, packaging, and experimental characterization.

Applicants with backgrounds in electronic engineering, microelectronics, integrated circuit design, photonics, computer engineering, physics, or related disciplines are encouraged to apply. Previous experience in integrated circuit design, silicon photonics, FPGA development, hardware architecture, numerical simulation, or laboratory measurement is beneficial but not mandatory. Students with strong motivation and an interest in interdisciplinary research are particularly welcome.