Congratulations to Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Associate Professor Aydin Aysu, who received the 2026 Design Automation Conference (DAC) Under-40 Innovators Award. Up to five researchers a year receive this honor for pushing the boundaries of electronic design and automation.
Aysu has spent nearly two decades in the ECE field, working in labs, teaching and specializing in the physical aspects of cybersecurity. As lead of the Hardware Cybersecurity Research Lab (HECTOR) at NC State, Aysu works closely with a team of researchers to proactively solve problems within computer hardware, like silicon chips, to prevent cybersecurity threats and attacks.
Similar to the foundation of a house, silicon chips are the base of any computing system. If the foundation of a house is compromised, nothing built on top of it will be stable. If a chip is compromised, the systems and software built on it are inherently vulnerable.
Traditionally, cybersecurity relies on software testing and refining once a problem arises; meaning security is addressed after the hardware has been manufactured. Aysu takes a more direct approach to security, building protection directly into hardware from day one.
“I’m primarily an applied scientist, so I’m an experimentalist,” said Aysu. “I believe cybersecurity is fundamentally application-based.”
In the HECTOR lab, however, Aysu and his team combine theory and practice; they test hardware, anticipate and model future threats, then translate those findings directly into new chip designs and prototypes.
To introduce those prototypes and findings to the world, Aysu launched his startup, MithrilAI.
Inspired by Tolkien’s mythical armor, MithrilAI focuses on protecting chips from every kind of cyber attack. By taking the experimental findings from the lab and commercializing them, the startup pushes research and prototypes into market-ready chips.
Together, MithrilAI and the HECTOR lab team give Aysu the unique ability to sit at the intersection of industry, education and research. The trick is, as technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing rapidly evolve, the cybersecurity field must innovate to keep pace. While his startup addresses industry needs in the moment, Aysu’s research team can look farther ahead, creating solutions to problems on the horizon.
“Industry works in quarters,” Aysu said. “Academia works in decades.”
A driven scientist first, Aysu’s curiosity and passion for discovery have given him the ability to look ahead and search for the next vulnerability. While the DAC award marks a career milestone, for Aysu, the real reward is in the process of ideation and innovation.
“Prizes are good,” said Aysu. “But surprises are even better.”