Natasa Miskov-Zivanov
CONTACT
INFORMATION
RESEARCH
INTERESTS
Hamerschlag Hall 2133A
Department of ECE, Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA
Phone: (412) 657-8277
E-mail: nmiskov@ece.cmu.edu
Web: http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~nmiskov
Computational methods for biological modeling. Biologically-inspired computing.
Emerging technologies. Computer-aided design, algorithms and tools.
EDUCATION
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Ph.D. Computer Engineering, December 2008
• Thesis Title: Probabilistic Modeling and Optimization for Circuit Reliability
• Research Advisor: Diana Marculescu
• GPA: 3.97 (Ph.D. and M.Sc.)
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
M.Sc. Computer Engineering, 2005
• Thesis Title: Symbolic Analysis of Circuit Reliability
• Research Advisor: Diana Marculescu
University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia
B.Sc. Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, 2003
• Thesis Title: The solution of a problem of minimizing the Bolca type performance index for firstorder plus time delay processes via LQR approach
• Major: Computing and Control, Sub-major: Computer Science and Informatics
• GPA: 9.89 (scale 6.00-10.00), Summa Cum Laude
HONORS AND • Fellowship, Foundation for Awarding Scholarships to Talented Students, University of Novi
AWARDS
Sad, Republic of Serbia, 1998-1999. Awarded to students with 9.00 or higher GPA (top 2%).
• Yearly Awards for Best Students, Department of Education, Republic of Serbia, 1998. Awarded to all
undergraduate students with 9.00 or higher GPA (top 2%).
• Scholarship, Department of Education, Republic of Serbia, 1999-2002. Awarded to all undergraduate
students with 8.50 or higher GPA (top 7%).
• Award for Outstanding Academic Results, Government of Norwegian Kingdom, 2001. Awarded to
1000 best students from all universities and all majors in Republic of Serbia (0.5% of the overall student
body).
• Award for Exceptional Academic Results, The Royal House Karadjordjevic Foundation, 2002.
Awarded to five outstanding final-year electrical engineering students in Republic of Serbia.
• Dean’s Award, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Faculty of Technical Sciences,
University of Novi Sad, 2003. Awarded each year to The Best Graduating Student at the department
(Summa Cum Laude).
• Young Student Support Program Grant, at 42nd Design Automation Conference, 2004.
• Computing Beyond Silicon Summer School Grant, California Institute of Technology, 2004.
• NSF-SIGDA SRC Design Automation Summer School Grant, 2005.
• Intel Fellowship Finalist, 2006.
AFFILIATIONS
• Student Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2003-present
• Student Member, Women in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (WIE), 2007-present
• Member, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Graduate Student Organization (EGO),
2003-2007
• Member, Women in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (WinECE), 2003-present
• Student Member, Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group – Design Automation
(ACM SIGDA), 2007-2008
RESEARCH
EXPERIENCE
Postdoctoral Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University
January 2009 – present
Research topic: variation-aware analysis of logic circuit reliability using non-linear models; assessing the
impact of various segments of the circuit on circuit reliability to guide protection techniques;
Research Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University
August 2003 – December 2008
Research topic: probabilistic and symbolic modeling and analysis of transient faults in combinational and
sequential circuits;
TEACHING
EXPERIENCE
Teaching Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University
January 2006 – December 2007
18-743, Energy Aware Computing, Spring 2006. Responsibilities: reviewing and grading assignments.
18-340, Digital Computation, Spring 2007. Responsibilities: holding weekly recitations, assisting with
exam and homework preparations, grading homeworks and exams. Nominated for the Best Teaching
Assistant award at the department in school year 2006-2007.
18-767, VLSI CAD: Software to Logic, Fall 2007. Responsibilities: assisting in assignment (homework
and project) preparations, grading assignments, assisting in lecture preparations and assisting in holding
lectures.
Mentoring Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University
June 2004 – August 2004
Engineering Your Future Workshop, July 2004. Responsibilities: introducing middle school students from
Pittsburgh public schools to electrical engineering discipline.
Distributed Mentor Project, June – August, 2004. Responsibilities: assisting in mentoring an
undergraduate student in her summer research project by providing project definition and guidance,
project background descriptions and weekly office hours.
SELECTED
COURSES
Carnegie Mellon University
• 18-725: Digital System on a Chip Design
• 18-743: Energy Aware Computing
• 18-760: VLSI CAD: Logic to Layout
• 18-766: The Art and Science of System Level Design
• 18-819: Applied Physics: Fundamentals of Semiconductors and Nanostructures
• 18-869: Special Topics in CAD: Statistical IC Design
• 33-755: Quantum Mechanics I
• 15-871: Computational Methods for Biological Modeling and Simulation
University of Novi Sad
• ESE2 511: Artificial Intelligence
• ESE2 512: Methods of Optimization
• ESE2 553: Database Systems
• ESE2 554: Compilers
• ESE2 555: Software Design
• ESE2 556: Information Systems
• ESE2 573: Computer Architecture
• ESE2 574: Computer Networks
SELECTED • Logic circuit drawing tool, course project, Spring-Fall 2002, five-member team. Creating an
PROJECTS
application for drawing logic circuits.
• FPGA based NoC Testbed for AES, course project, Spring 2004, two-member team. Delivering a Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation of Network-on Chip (NoC) prototype for the security
application (AES). The project was awarded the Best Project award in the class (among 7 projects) and was
nominated for the Best Course Project award at the department in school year 2003-2004.
• Gaussian Scoring for Speech Recognition, course project, Spring 2005, five-member team. Designing a
circuit that is responsible for probability computation of extracted speech features.
• Tolerance of Photonic Crystals, course project, Spring 2005, two-member team. Estimation of the effects
of small changes in the parameters on energy bands of photonic crystals. The project was second best project
in the class (among ten projects).
• Resolution of GPCR Families by Sequence Similarity, course project, Spring 2006, three-member team.
Analyzing several methods of clustering within receptor families with sequence similarity.
SELECTED • Molecular Electronics: Concepts, Results and Perspectives, special topic, course: The Art and Science of
TALKS
System Level Design, ECE Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 2005.
• Circuit Reliability Analysis Using Symbolic Techniques, International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis,
Lake Arrowhead, 2005.
• Symbolic Analysis of Circuit Reliability, Center for Silicon System Implementation Seminar, ECE
Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 2005.
• MARS-S: Modeling and Reduction of Soft Errors in Sequential Circuits, International Symposium on
Quality Electronics Design, San Jose, 2007.
• Soft Error Rate Analysis for Sequential Circuits, Conference on Design, Automation and Test in Europe,
Nice, France, 2007.
• Multiple Clock Domains, special topic, course Digital Computation, ECE Department, Carnegie Mellon
University, 2007.
• MARS-S: Modeling and Reduction of Soft Errors in Sequential Circuits, CSSI Center Seminar, ECE
Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007.
• Reliability: An Architectural Solution, invited lecture, course: VLSI CAD: Software to Logic, ECE
Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007.
• Process Variability-Aware Transient Fault Modeling and Analysis, International Conference on
Computer-Aided Design, San Jose, 2008.
PUBLICATIONS [1] N. Miskov-Zivanov, K.-C. Wu and D. Marculescu, “Process Variability-Aware Transient Fault
Modeling and Analysis,” in Proc. of IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design
(ICCAD), pp. 685-690, November 2008.
[2] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “Modeling and Optimization for Soft-Error Reliability of
Sequential Circuits,” in IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
(TCAD), Vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 803-816, May 2008.
[3] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “A Systematic Approach to Modeling and Analysis of
Transient Faults in Logic Circuits,” in Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Quality Electronic
Design (ISQED), March 2008.
[4] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “Soft Error Rate Analysis for Sequential Circuits,” in Proc. of
Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), pp. 1436-1441, April 2007 (short-listed for best papers
in 2007 for ten years of DATE).
[5] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “MARS-S: Modeling and Reduction of Soft Errors in
Sequential Circuits,” in Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED), pp.
893-898, March 2007 (best paper award nomination).
[6] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “Circuit Reliability Analysis Using Symbolic Techniques,” in
IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD), Vol. 25, No.
12, pp. 2638-2649, December 2006.
[7] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “MARS-C: Modeling and Reduction of Soft Errors in
Combinational Circuits,” in Proc. of Design Automation Conference (DAC), pp. 767-772, July 2006.
[8] N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “Circuit Reliability Analysis Using Symbolic Techniques,” in
Proc. of International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis (IWLS), June 2005.
[9] Z. D. Jelicic, N. Miskov, and D. Petrovacki, “Extended LQR control for first-order plus time-delay
system,” in Proc. of International Symposium on Interdisciplinary Regional Research (Hungary, Romania,
Yugoslavia), Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, 2002.
In preparation:
• N. Miskov-Zivanov and D. Marculescu, “Modeling and analysis of multiple upsets in logic circuits,” to
be submitted to IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD).
COMPUTER
SKILLS
• Software: C/C++, HSPICE, Matlab (with Simulink), Verilog
• Operating Systems: Unix/Linux, Windows
LANGUAGES
Fluent in Serbo-Croatian and English. Some French and Russian.