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MIT mourns passing of Indian American professor Arvind Mithal
Arvind Mithal joined the MIT faculty in 1978, and has since advanced dataflow computing, profoundly influencing computer architecture and digital design.
Arvind Mithal was the Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at MIT. / Image MIT news/ M. Scott Brauer
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a community letter, grieved the passing of Indian-American Arvind Mithal, 77, the Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, who passed away on June 17.
Known for his contributions to dataflow computing and parallelism, Arvind served at MIT for nearly five decades, leading the Computation Structures Group in the institute’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
MIT president Sally Kornbluth expressed the community's grief highlighting Arvind's intellectual brilliance and zest for life. “He was beloved by countless people across the MIT community and around the world,” she wrote.
Arvind’s work on dataflow computing revolutionized the field by optimizing data flow to enhance computational efficiency. In the last 25 years, he expanded his research to formal modeling, high-level synthesis, and formal verification of digital devices. His contributions extended to developing memory models and cache coherence protocols for parallel computing architectures.
“He was both a tremendous scholar and a dedicated teacher,” said Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s dean of engineering. “He brought systems-level thinking to our students and was an exceptional academic leader.”
“We will miss Arvind deeply,” said Asu Ozdaglar, head of EECS.
Arvind’s group at MIT developed parallel computing languages Id and pH, culminating in the publication of “Implicit Parallel Programming in pH” in 2001. He played a critical role in the reorganization of the EECS department after the establishment of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.
In the late 1980s, Arvind’s focus led to the Monsoon project, resulting in the creation of dataflow computing machines, one of which is now in the Computer History Museum.
Arvind’s legacy includes founding Sandburst and Bluespec, Inc., companies that advanced semiconductor chip design. His work earned him membership in the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among other honors.
Arvind earned his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He joined MIT in 1978 after teaching at the University of California, Irvine. He is survived by his wife Gita Singh Mithal, their sons Divakar and Prabhakar, and two grandchildren.
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