Mark Buckler

Applied Scientist

Amazon Scout

Biography

I’m currently an Applied Scientist at Amazon where I help this cute robot see the world with fast, accurate, and energy efficient computer vision. I recently graduated with a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University where I was advised by Prof Adrian Sampson.

My graduate research focused on efficient computer vision. I’ve found that abstractions can simplify the design process, but breaking down boundaries through hardware-software co-design can produce superior results. For this reason I see myself as a system creator rather than a hardware or software developer.

As an entrepreneurial engineer I quickly gravitated to both industrial and academic research. While finishing my M.S. at UMass Amherst I formed Firebrand Innovations as a way of monetizing intellectual property I developed while in high school. These days I can be found in Amazon’s robotics lab building powerful and exciting new computer vision systems.

Interests

Computer Vision
Machine Learning
Robotics
Computer Architecture
Embedded Systems

Education

PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2019

Cornell University
M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2014

University of Massachusetts, Amherst
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, 2012

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Selected Publications

Mark Buckler, Philip Bedoukian, Suren Jayasuriya, Adrian Sampson, EVA²: Exploiting Temporal Redundancy in Live Computer Vision, in International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA). March, 2018
Details arXiv PDF Slides Video Project
Mark Buckler, Suren Jayasuriya, Adrian Sampson, Reconfiguring the Imaging Pipeline for Computer Vision, in International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). April, 2017
Details DOI arXiv PDF Slides Code Project
Mark Buckler, Arpan Vaidya, Xiaobin Liu, Wayne Burleson, Dynamic synchronizer flip-flop performance in FinFET technologies, in IEEE Symposium on Networks-on-Chip (NOCS). September, 2014
Details DOI PDF
Mark Buckler, Wayne Burleson, Predictive synchronization for DVFS-enabled multi-processor systems, in IEEE Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED). March, 2014
Details DOI PDF
Mark Buckler, Wayne Burleson, Greg Sadowski, Low-power networks-on-chip: Progress and remaining challenges, in IEEE Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED). September, 2013
Details DOI PDF

Selected Patents

Mark Buckler, Adrian Sampson, Suren Jayasuriya, Configurable image processing system and methods for operating a configurable image processing system for multiple applications, filed: April 13, 2018
Details Google Patents
Mark Buckler, Continuous Frequency Measurement for Predictive Periodic Synchronization, filed: October 23, 2013, granted: May 17, 2016
Details Google Patents USPTO
Mark Buckler, Sudha Thiruvengadam, Predictive Periodic Synchronization Using Phase-Locked Loop Digital Ratio Updates, filed: October 25, 2013, granted: September 22, 2015
Details Google Patents USPTO
Mark Buckler, Synchronizer Circuits With Failure-Condition Detection and Correction, filed: September 11, 2013, granted: September 30, 2014
Details Google Patents USPTO
Mark Buckler, Video Conferencing, filed: December 11, 2007, granted: October 11, 2012
Details Google Patents USPTO

Recent Posts

How to Make Bad Deep Learning Hardware

Wed, Aug 15, 2018

I’ve greatly enjoyed my time as a graduate research intern at DeepScale and so I was pleased when Forrest Iandola asked me to give a talk to his team on deep learning hardware. To keep the talk from being a boring list of slides recounting famous (but dry) neural network hardware papers, we decided to structure it like one of David Patterson’s talks which describe what not to do. The talk was well received, so I decided to reformat it into this blog post.

All About Invention Disclosures

Mon, Feb 26, 2018

If you’ve read my post about patenting in academia and industry then you know why you might want to file a patent with your university or company. The first step to filing a patent in most organizations (after creating the invention of course!) is filling out an Invention Disclosure Form or IDF. These forms will be created, provided by, and reviewed by your organization’s technology transfer office or center for technology licensing.

Patenting in Academia and Industry

Sat, Feb 24, 2018

We all get excited about doing scientific or engineering research for different reasons, but most of us seek the thrill of creating something entirely new. In this way, research can be just as wonderful as the creative arts. Publishing your new ideas is great for sharing information with the world, but sometimes you want to sell your ideas too. This is where filing for a patent can be very useful. I have some experience in this area as I have patented inventions on my own, in industry, and most recently in academia.

Cutting Videos with FFmpeg

Thu, Jul 6, 2017

While building the downloading and decoding scripts for the Youtube BoundingBoxes dataset I needed to accurately cut videos into smaller clips. Some of the annotated videos were quite long and the annotations rarely covered the full video, so to save space my scripts cut out and save only the annotated sections. If done incorrectly this video cutting can cause subtle frame timing issues which I didn’t fully understand when I started writing these scripts.

My Old Electronic Music Blog

Tue, May 2, 2017

Back in 2010 I started a blog dedicated to electronic music called Quoth the Raver (a play on Quoth the Raven). It was a huge amount of fun sharing the music I found with everyone on the site, and it inspired me to get even more familiar with the various genres, artists, and labels. These days electronic music (also known as EDM) has exploded in popularity, so the novelty of sharing new artists has worn off to a certain extent.