The focus of the UC San Diego Center for Machine-Intelligence, Computing and Security(MICS)  is pioneering the next era of AI revolution by deeply integrating hardware, software, and data. Moving beyond traditional machine learning, our work focuses on the full lifecycle of modern intelligent systems—from the development and efficient deployment of massive generative foundation models and large language models (LLMs), to iteratively leveraging AI (which itself is fueled by the hardware capabilities itself) to dramatically accelerate chip design, to the rigorous validation of AI outputs through proofs of provenance and computation. We are fundamentally re-architecting computing stacks to support these data-intensive models, and using data-intensive models to make better compute systems, ensuring that training and inference can scale intelligently from the cloud to the most resource-constrained edge devices.

Our innovations directly enable the new wave of physically embedded intelligence, where intelligent agentic-based decision-making must occur in the real world with physical constraints and just in-time within physical embodiments such as drones, medical devices, and autonomous systems. We lead in agentic, automated performance optimization that adapts across diverse platforms and have pioneered the safe training and execution of deep learning-based networks directly on edge devices. Furthermore, our holistic approach to cyber-physical systems integrates advances in privacy-preserving computation and verifiable AI to secure these agents against adversarial threats, ensuring that the deployment of generative models in the physical world is both robust and trustworthy.

Recent News


Brain-inspired Device Could Lead to Faster, More Energy-efficient AI Hardware

Brain-inspired Device Could Lead to Faster, More Energy-efficient AI Hardware

March 11, 2026

A brain-inspired hardware platform could lead to the development of compact, low-power AI hardware. By mimicking how the brain processes information, the platform improved the speed, accuracy and energy efficiency of simulated tasks such as spoken-digit recognition and early seizure detection. Full Story


Six UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Faculty Named 2025 IEEE Fellows

Six UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Faculty Named 2025 IEEE Fellows

January 16, 2025

Six faculty from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been named 2025 Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Full Story


UC San Diego Electrical Engineering Professor Honored by Schmidt Sciences for AI Research

UC San Diego Electrical Engineering Professor Honored by Schmidt Sciences for AI Research

December 19, 2024

University of California San Diego electrical and computer engineering professor Yuanyuan Shi has been named a 2024 AI2050 Early Career Fellow by Schmidt Sciences. This honor recognizes Shi’s pioneering work in developing AI and control models for sustainable energy systems–particularly, AI-driven building control systems designed to optimize indoor air quality while reducing energy consumption. Full Story


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