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Kurt Keutzer

Kurt Keutzer is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kurt Keutzer rather than just read about it. In short: Kurt Keutzer (born November 9, 1955) is an American computer scientist. Early life and education Kurt Keutzer grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Key takeaways

  • Kurt Keutzer belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Kurt Keutzer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Kurt Keutzer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kurt Keutzer (born November 9, 1955) is an American computer scientist.

Early life and education Kurt Keutzer grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Maharishi University of Management (formerly Mararishi International University) in 1978, and a PhD in computer science from Indiana University Bloomington in 1984.

Career Keutzer joined Bell Labs in 1984, where he worked on logic synthesis. In 1991, he joined the electronic design automation company Synopsys, where he was promoted to chief technology officer. He subsequently joined the University of California, Berkeley as a professor in 1998. His research at Berkeley has focused on the intersection of high performance computing and machine learning. Working with a number of graduate students at Berkeley, Keutzer developed FireCaffe, which scaled the training of deep neural networks to over 100 GPUs. Later, with LARS and LAMB optimizers, they scaled it to over 1000 servers. Keutzer and his students also developed deep neural networks such as SqueezeNet, SqueezeDet, and SqueezeSeg, which can run efficiently on mobile devices. Keutzer co-founded DeepScale with his PhD student Forrest Iandola in 2015, and Keutzer served as the company's chief strategy officer. The firm was focused on developing deep neural networks for advanced driver assistance systems in passenger cars. On October 1, 2019, electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, Inc. purchased DeepScale to augment and accelerate its self-driving vehicle work.

Honors and awards Keutzer was named a Fellow of the IEEE in 1996. Recipient of DAC Most Influential Paper (MIP) award (24th DAC, 1987) for his "Dagon: technology binding and local optimization by DAG matching” publication.

Books by Keutzer 1988. Dwight Hill, Don Shugard, John Fishburn, and Kurt Keutzer. Algorithms and Techniques for VLSI Layout Synthesis. Springer. 1994. Srinivas Devadas, Abhijit Ghosh, and Kurt Keutzer. Logic Synthesis. McGraw-Hill. 2002. David Chinnery and Kurt Keutzer. Closing the Gap Between ASIC & Custom: Tools and Techniques for High-Performance ASIC Design. Springer. (2nd edition appeared in 2007.) 2004. Pinhong Chen, Desmond A. Kirkpatrick, and Kurt Keutzer. Static Crosstalk-Noise Analysis: For Deep Sub-Micron Digital Designs. Springer. 2005. Matthias Gries and Kurt Keutzer. Building ASIPs: The Mescal Methodology. Springer.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kurt Keutzer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kurt Keutzer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kurt Keutzer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kurt Keutzer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kurt Keutzer

In research
Kurt Keutzer appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Kurt Keutzer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Kurt Keutzer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 births, 20th-century American businesspeople, 20th-century American scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Kurt Keutzer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Kurt Keutzer in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Kurt Keutzer means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Kurt Keutzer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kurt Keutzer in simple terms?

Kurt Keutzer (born November 9, 1955) is an American computer scientist. Early life and education Kurt Keutzer grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Why does Kurt Keutzer matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kurt Keutzer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kurt Keutzer.

Tags

  • 1955 births
  • 20th-century American businesspeople
  • 20th-century American scientists
  • 21st-century American businesspeople
  • 21st-century American scientists
  • American chief technology officers
  • American computer scientists
  • American technology company founders
  • Fellows of the IEEE
  • Indiana University Bloomington alumni
  • Living people
  • Machine learning researchers

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