Franjo (Frank) Plavec's Home Page
Short Biography
I received Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto in 2010 with the thesis Stream Computing on FPGAs.
In 2004 I received master's degree from the University of Toronto with the thesis Soft-Core Processor Design.
I received bachelor's degree from Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing,
University of Zagreb in 2002, after completing the thesis Middleware System Directory.
During my graduate studies I worked under the supervision of Professor Zvonko Vranesic and Professor Stephen Brown, in the Computer Group of the
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, at the University of Toronto.
My professional interests include CAD automation, RTL design, modeling, high-level compilation and computer architecture.
Outside of work I enjoy cycling, soccer, astronomy, travel, and sampling ethnic foods at numerous festivals in Toronto.
Publications
F. Plavec, "Stream Computing on FPGAs", Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 2010.
F. Plavec, Z. Vranesic, S. Brown, "Enhancements
to FPGA Design Methodology Using Streaming", In Proceedings of the International
Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL '09),
Prague, Czech Republic, 2009.
F. Plavec, Z. Vranesic, S. Brown, "Stream
Programming for FPGAs", Book chapter. In
Languages
for Embedded Systems and their Applications, Springer, 2009.
F. Plavec, Z. G. Vranesic, Stephen D. Brown, "Challenges
in Compilation of Brook Streaming Programs for FPGAs",
Workshop on Soft
Processor Systems (WoSPS '08), Toronto, Canada,
2008.
F. Plavec, Z. Vranesic, S. Brown, "Towards Compilation of
Streaming Programs into FPGA Hardware",
In Proceedings of the Forum
on Specification and Design Languages (FDL '08),
Stuttgart, Germany, September 2008.
F. Plavec, Z. G. Vranesic, S. D. Brown, "Bridging the Gap between Software and Hardware: Stream Computing on FPGAs",
Poster presentation at TEXPO Research Competition and Exhibition, Ottawa, Canada, 2007.
F. Plavec, Z. G. Vranesic, S. D. Brown, "On Digital Search Trees: A Simple Method for Constructing Balanced Binary Trees",
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Software and Data Technologies (ICSOFT '07), Barcelona, Spain, 2007.
F. Plavec, B. Fort, Z. G. Vranesic, S. D. Brown, "Experiences with Soft-Core Processor Design",
In Proceedings of the 19th IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS '05) - workshop 3, vol. 4, Denver, CO, 2005.
F. Plavec, "Soft-Core Processor Design", Master's thesis, University of Toronto, 2004.
I. Benc, F. Plavec, and S. Srbljic, "Scalable Data Storage for Public Information System Middleware MidArc",
In Proceedings of the 7th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, FL, 2003.
S. Srbljic, D. Huljenic, B. Dellas, A. Caric, I. Benc, I. Skuliber, M. Stefanec, D. Simic, A. Milanovic, F. Plavec, I. Grudenic, D. Kristo, G. Radic, D. Klaric, M. Mihaljevic:
"Application Middleware: A Case Study",
Annual of 2002 of the Croatian Academy of Engineering, Zagreb, 2002, pp. 101-108.
F. Plavec, "Middleware System Directory", Undergraduate thesis (In Croatian), University of Zagreb, 2002.
Projects
During my Ph.D work I developed the FPGA Brook compiler, a compilation system for implementation of streaming programs written in the FPGA Brook streaming language in Field Programmable Gate Arrays.
The compiler and the FPGA Brook benchmark set can be found in the FPGA Brook section.
As a part of the work for my master's thesis, I developed a UT Nios soft-core processor; open-source implementation of the Nios architecture.
The processor and the UT Nios benchmark set can be found in the UT Nios section.
During my graduate education at the University of Toronto, I have had the opportunity to take many great courses which included a major project component.
Here are some of the projects that I have worked on:
F. Plavec, T. Czajkowski. "Distributed Replicated File System Based on FreePastry DHT" (2004)
B. Fort, D. Paladino, F. Plavec. "Full-Custom Layout of an SRAM-Based FPGA" (2004)
I. Matosevic, F. Plavec. "Performance Evaluation of the Nios Architecture" (2004)
F. Plavec. "Behavioral Synthesis Tool Development" (2003)
F. Plavec. "Dependence Testing for Parallelizing Compilers" (Survey paper, 2003)
F. Plavec. ".NET to Java Comparison" (2002)
Teaching
A great part of the graduate life is teaching. I have been a teaching assistant ever since my undergraduate education in Croatia, and I have also TA-ed throughout my graduate education.
As an undergraduate student I was a TA for the "Electrical Measurements" course in 1998/99 academic year, and for the courses "Automata Theory, Formal Languages and Compiler Design I and II" from 2000 to 2002.
Since 2002, as a graduate student, I have TA-ed ECE253 (Digital & Computer Systems), ECE241
(Digital Systems), ECE342 (Computer Hardware), CSC372 (Microprocessor
Software), ECE352 (Computer Organization).
Many of these appointments were double positions.
In the winter term of 2008, as a sole responsibility
instructor I designed and taught a new course
(Embedded Systems Design II) at McMaster
University.
I was responsible for designing and delivering all lectures
and laboratory exercises, and supervising two teaching assistants.
I was also an instructor for the
da Vinci Engineering Enrichment Program (DEEP). With the help of a fellow graduate student,
I developed and taught a
Digital Hardware Design course for gifted high school students.
The course ran for a week in the summers of 2006 and 2007.
In addition, in December of 2006, I was also a workshop instructor for the Robotics Workshop for high school students.
Community Service
Academic world functions well in part because its members volunteer their time to organize events and perform other administrative duties.
In 2006/07 academic year, I was a chair for the Connections 2007 ECE Graduate Symposium.
As one of the conference chairs, I helped prepare the sponsorship package and budget for the conference.
I also worked on the event promotion and securing funding and sponsorship. Finally, I maintained the event's web-site.
From 2005 until the end of 2007, I was an organizer for Cider Seminar series.
I also helped organize various smaller events in our department, including new graduate student orientation and summer BBQ.
Finally, I contributed to the scientific community as a secondary reviewer for several conferences: FPL, CICC
and ASP-DAC.
Contact
Send me an e-mail at:
plavec@eecg.toronto.edu