Chao Qian, M. Sc.

Portrait photo of Chao Qian in front of a grey/blue background

Short CV

Chao Qian, M.Sc., has been working as a researcher and PhD student at the UDE's Department of Embedded Systems since April 2020. He received his bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2015 with a focus on wireless sensor networks. From 2013 to 2017, he was working in a company designing and producing wearable devices and humanoid robots. In 2020, he received his master's degree in Embedded Systems with a focus on energy-efficient embedded AI systems at the University Duisburg-Essen.

Until March 2022 he worked on the research project “KI-Sprung: LUTNet – An Energy-Efficient AI Network Based on Elementary Lookup Tables,” which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This project investigated how pre-trained and pre-optimized neural networks can be used to develop AI solutions that that run with high efficiency on FPGAs.

Research

His research focuses on energy-efficient Deep Learning accelerators on FPGAs, with an emphasis on developing LSTM accelerators in RTL using VHDL. At the RTL level, key methods include pipelining, operation parallelization, and efficient implementation of activation functions. At a higher level, workload-aware optimization further improves energy efficiency by reducing configuration overhead based on application workload intensity.

M.Sc. Chao Qian

Informatik / AI

Address
Bismarckstr. 90 (BC)
47057 Duisburg
Room
BC 104
Phone
+49 203 379 2390
Fax
+49 203 379 5220
E-Mail
chao.qian@uni-due.de

Functions

  • Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in, Intelligente Eingebettete Systeme

The following publications are listed in the online university bibliography of the University of Duisburg-Essen. Further information may also be found on the person's personal web pages.

    Posters / Proceedings posters

  • Helms, Domenik; Kettner, Mark; Perjikolaei, Behnam Razi; Einhaus, Lukas; Ringhofer, Christopher; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    FPGA based low latency, low power stream processing AI
    2nd European Workshop on On-Board Data Processing (OBDP2021), 14-17 June 2021, Online, (Session 3),
    2021
    DOI (Open Access)

    • Book articles / Proceedings papers

  • Ling, Tianheng; Qian, Chao; Hasler, Lukas Johannes; Schiele, Gregor
    Automating Versatile Time-Series Analysis with Tiny Transformers on Embedded FPGAs
    In: IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI: ISVLSI 2025 / ISVLSI 2025: 28th IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI, 6-9 July 2025, Greece / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (Eds.). Piscataway: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2025
    DOI, Online Full Text
  • Qian, Chao
    Leveraging Application-Specific Knowledge for Energy-Efficient Deep Learning Accelerators on Resource-Constrained FPGAs
    In: Architecture of Computing Systems: Proceedings / 38th International Conference (ARCS 2025); April 22–24, 2025; Kiel, Germany / Tomforde, Sven; Krupitzer, Christian; Vialle, Stéphane; Suarez, Estela; Pionteck, Thilo (Eds.). Cham: Springer, 2025, pp. 459 – 468
    DOI
  • Ling, Tianheng; Hoever, Julian; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    FlowPrecision : Advancing FPGA-Based Real-Time Fluid Flow Estimation with Linear Quantization
    In: 2024 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops and other Affiliated Events (PerCom Workshops) / IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops and other Affiliated Events (PerCom Workshops), 11-15 March 2024, Biarritz, France. Piscataway: IEEE, 2024
    DOI, Online Full Text (Open Access)
  • Qian, Chao; Cichiwskyj, Christopher; Ling, Tianheng; Schiele, Gregor
    Idle is the New Sleep : Configuration-Aware Alternative to Powering Off FPGA-Based DL Accelerators During Inactivity
    In: Architecture of Computing Systems: Proceedings / 37th International Conference, ARCS 2024, Potsdam, Germany, May 14–16, 2024 / Fey, Dietmar; Stabernack, Benno; Lankes, Stefan (Eds.). Berlin, Germany: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024, pp. 161 – 176
    DOI
  • Ling, Tianheng; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    Integer-only Quantized Transformers for Embedded FPGA-based Time-series Forecasting in AIoT
    In: 2024 IEEE Annual Congress on Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT): Proceedings / IEEE Annual Congress on Artificial Intelligence of Things (IEEE AIoT), 24-26 July 2024, Melbourne / IEEE (Eds.). New York: IEEE, 2024, pp. 38 – 44
    DOI, Online Full Text
  • Ling, Tianheng; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    On-Device Soft Sensors : Real-Time Fluid Flow Estimation from Level Sensor Data
    In: Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services; Proceedings, Part II / 20th EAI International Conference, MobiQuitous 2023, November 14–17, 2023, Melbourne, Australia / Zaslavsky, Arkady; Ning, Zhaolong; Kalogeraki, Vana; Georgakopoulos, Dimitrios; Chrysanthis, Panos K. (Eds.). Cham: Springer Nature, 2024, pp. 529 – 537
    DOI
  • Ling, Tianheng; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    Towards Auto-Building of Embedded FPGA-based Soft Sensors for Wastewater Flow Estimation
    In: 2024 IEEE Annual Congress on Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT): Proceedings / IEEE Annual Congress on Artificial Intelligence of Things (IEEE AIoT), 24-26 July 2024, Melbourne / IEEE (Eds.). New York: IEEE, 2024, pp. 248 – 249
    DOI, Online Full Text (Open Access)
  • Qian, Chao; Ling, Tianheng; Schiele, Gregor
    ElasticAI : Creating and Deploying Energy-Efficient Deep Learning Accelerator for Pervasive Computing
    In: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops and other Affiliated Events (PerCom Workshops) / PerCom 2023, 13-17 March 2023, Atlanta, GA, USA. Piscataway: IEEE, 2023, pp. 297 – 299
    DOI
  • Qian, Chao; Ling, Tianheng; Schiele, Gregor
    Enhancing Energy-Efficiency by Solving the Throughput Bottleneck of LSTM Cells for Embedded FPGAs
    In: Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases: International Workshops of ECML PKDD 2022, Grenoble, France, September 19–23, 2022, Proceedings, Part I / International Workshops of ECML PKDD 2022, Grenoble, France, September 19–23, 2022 / Koprinska, Irena; Mignone, Paolo; Guidotti, Riccardo (Eds.). Cham: Springer, 2023, pp. 594 – 605
    DOI
  • Qian, Chao; Einhaus, Lukas; Schiele, Gregor
    ElasticAI-Creator: Optimizing Neural Networks for Time-Series-Analysis for On-Device Machine Learning in IoT Systems
    In: Proceedings of the 20th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 2022) / 20th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 2022): 6 - 9 November 2022; Boston, USA / Gummeson, Jeremy; Lee, Sunghoon Ivan (Eds.). New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022, pp. 941 – 946
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Kettner, Mark; Perjikolaei, Behnam Razi; Einhaus, Lukas; Ringhofer, Christopher; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    FPGA based low latency, low power stream processing AI
    In: 2nd European Workshop on On-Board Data Processing (OBDP2021) / 2nd European Workshop on On-Board Data Processing (OBDP2021), 14-17 June 2021, Online, (Session 3) 2021. Zenodo, 2021
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Einhaus, Lukas; Qian, Chao; Ringhofer, Christopher; Schiele, Gregor
    In-Situ Artificial Intelligence for Self-∗ Devices : The Elastic AI Ecosystem (Tutorial)
    In: 2nd IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems Companion, ACSOS-C 2021: Proceedings / 2nd IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems Companion, ACSOS-C 2021, Virtual, Washington, 27 September - 1 October 2021. Piscataway: IEEE, 2021, pp. 320 – 321
    DOI
  • Einhaus, Lukas; Qian, Chao; Ringhofer, Christopher; Schiele, Gregor
    Towards Precomputed 1D-Convolutional Layers for Embedded FPGAs
    In: Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases: Proceedings, Part I / International Workshops of ECML PKDD 2021, Virtual Event, September 13-17, 2021 / Kamp, Michael; Koprinska, Irena; Bibal, Adrien; Bouadi, Tassadit; Frénay, Benoît; Galárraga, Luis; Oramas, José.; Adilova, Linara; Krishnamurthy, Yamuna; Kang, Bo; Largeron, Christine; Lijffijt, Jefrey; Viard, Tiphaine; Welke, Pascal; Ruocco, Massimiliano; Aune, Erlend; Gallicchio, Claudio; Schiele, Gregor; Pernkopf, Franz; Blott, Michaela; Fröning, Holger; Schindler, Günther; Guidotti, Riccardo; Monreale, Anna; Rinzivillo, Salvatore; Biecek, Przemyslaw; Ntoutsi, Eirini; Pechenizkiy, Mykola; Rosenhahn, Bodo; Buckley, Christopher; Cialfi, Daniela; Lanillos, Pablo; Ramstead, Maxwell; Verbelen, Tim; Ferreira, Pedro M.; Andresini, Giuseppina; Malerba, Donato; Medeiros, Ibéria; Fournier-Viger, Philippe; Nawaz, M. Saqib; Ventura, Sebastian; Sun, Meng; Zhou, Min; Bitetta, Valerio; Bordino, Ilaria; Ferretti, Andrea; Gullo, Francesco; Ponti, Giovanni; Severini, Lorenzo; Ribeiro, Rita; Gama, João; Gavaldà, Ricard; Cooper, Lee; Ghazaleh, Naghmeh; Richiardi, Jonas; Roqueiro, Damian; Saldana Miranda, Diego; Sechidis, Konstantinos; Graça, Guilherme (Eds.). Cham: Springer, 2021, pp. 327 – 338
    DOI
  • Burger, Alwyn Johannes; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor; Helms, Domenik
    An Embedded CNN Implementation for On-Device ECG Analysis
    In: IEEE Annual Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom) / PerIoT 2020: The Fourtternational Workshop on Mobile and Pervasive Internet of Thingsh In. Piscataway: IEEE, 2020
    DOI
  • Cichiwskyj, Christopher; Qian, Chao; Schiele, Gregor
    Time to Learn : Temporal Accelerators as an Embedded Deep Neural Network Platform
    In: IoT Streams for Data-Driven Predictive Maintenance and IoT, Edge, and Mobile for Embedded Machine Learning: Second International Workshop, IoT Streams 2020, and First International Workshop, ITEM 2020, Co-located with ECML/PKDD 2020 ; Ghent, Belgium, September 14-18, 2020 ; Revised Selected Papers / 2nd International Workshop on IoT Streams for Data-Driven Predictive Maintenance ; IoT Streams 2020 ; September 14-18, 2020, Ghent, Belgium / Gama, João; Pashami, Sepideh; Bifet, Albert; Sayed-Mouchaweh, Moamar; Fröning, Holger; Pernkopf, Franz; Schiele, Gregor; Blott, Michaela (Eds.). Cham: Springer, 2020, pp. 256 – 267
    DOI

    • Journal articles

  • Ling, Tianheng; Qian, Chao; Klann, Theodor Mario; Hoever, Julian; Einhaus, Lukas; Schiele, Gregor
    Configurable Multi-Layer Perceptron-Based Soft Sensors on Embedded Field Programmable Gate Arrays : Targeting Diverse Deployment Goals in Fluid Flow Estimation
    In: Sensors, Vol. 25, 2025, Nr. 1, 83
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Qian, Chao; Ling, Tianheng; Cichiwskyj, Christopher; Schiele, Gregor
    Configuration-aware approaches for enhancing energy efficiency in FPGA-based deep learning accelerators
    In: Journal of Systems Architecture, Vol. 163, 2025, 103410
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Qian, Chao; Ling, Tianheng; Schiele, Gregor
    Exploring energy efficiency of LSTM accelerators : A parameterized architecture design for embedded FPGAs
    In: Journal of Systems Architecture, Vol. 152, 2024, 103181
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Cichiwskyj, Christopher; Schmeißer, Stephan; Qian, Chao; Einhaus, Lukas; Ringhofer, Christopher; Schiele, Gregor
    Elastic AI : System support for adaptive machine learning in pervasive computing systems
    In: CCF Transactions on Pervasive Computing and Interaction, Vol. 3, 2021, Nr. 3, pp. 300 – 328
    DOI (Open Access)