About me | Notion

Photo by Winchester Zhang

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Winchester_Zhang

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I'm currently a CPU RTL Design Engineer at RiVAI Technologies.

Coming from Anhui, China

I was born and raised in Zongyang, a riverside town in Anhui Province. As a child, I dreamed of becoming an astrophysicist—captivated by the mysteries of the cosmos and driven by a deep desire to understand how the universe works. In middle and high school, physics was always my strongest subject. Inspired by a senior who went on to study astrophysics at Peking University, I once saw physics as my destined path.

But when it came time to apply for college, I didn’t pursue astronomy. Part of me lacked the confidence to speak openly with my family about it, and part of me feared the uncertain career prospects in the field. So, in 2018, I took a different route—I enrolled in the Electrical Engineering program at South China University of Technology (SCUT) and moved over 1,000 kilometers south to Guangzhou to start my undergraduate journey.

Winding Roads from SCUT to Cornell

During my early years at SCUT, I followed the traditional EE curriculum(Power Systems/Electric Machinery), but over time, I realized it wasn’t the future I envisioned. The content felt stagnant, and I yearned for something more dynamic. In my third year, I applied to an exchange program and spent a year at Linköping University in Sweden.

There, I explored courses in analog/digital circuits, ASIC design, and physics. You might think that’s when I discovered a passion for chip design—but actually, no. The ASIC course was DSP-heavy and deeply technical, and without prior experience in gate-level design, I struggled to understand how circuit diagrams mapped to architecture. That experience pushed me away from digital design for a while. Meanwhile, the physics courses, especially quantum mechanics, were so challenging that I eventually dropped them. At my lowest point, I even considered dropping out of college and starting over.

My family, understandably, objected. After many conversations, we compromised: I would apply to graduate programs in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) to secure a career path, and explore my interests through electives later. With a solid GPA and international experience, I was lucky to be admitted to the ECE M.Eng. program at Cornell University. In the summer of 2022, I crossed the ocean and began a new chapter in Ithaca, New York.

Finding Clarity at Cornell

Cornell’s campus is stunning, and Ithaca quickly became a place I cherished. For my M.Eng. project, I worked with Professor David Hysell on radio wave ray tracing. We often talked about science and astronomy—he shared how he had once considered astrophysics too, but found the lack of concrete data frustrating. Astronomy, in many ways, is beautiful but ambiguous.

At the same time, I was taking a radio astronomy course. While we used telescopes to gather observational data, much of the work felt like educated guesswork. Slowly, I began to realize that astrophysics might not be as rigorous or grounded as I had imagined.

The real turning point came when I enrolled in ECE 4750: Computer Architecture, taught by Professor Christopher Batten. That course completely changed how I saw computing. For the first time, I could connect the dots—from low-level circuits to the operating system layer. My team and I built a five-stage, single-issue RISC-V pipeline processor with cache support, capable of running C programs. It was deterministic. It was elegant. And it worked.

That’s when it clicked—this is what I want to do. Chip design wasn’t just intellectually satisfying; it was deeply fulfilling.

Still on the Way

After graduating from Cornell, I spent six challenging months job hunting. The front-end chip design field was competitive, but I was lucky to be offered an internship at the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip, where I spent four months diving deep into processor simulation, verification, and RTL development.

That led to my first full-time job at ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), working on HBM design. But DRAM still felt far from the kind of architectural and RTL design work I had grown passionate about. So after another six months, in May 2025, I’ll be joining RiVAI Technology to work on high-performance RISC-V CPU design—a role that aligns perfectly with what I’ve grown to love.

Where will the road lead next? I’m not sure.

I’ve always admired those who find their true calling early and stay on that path with unwavering focus. My journey’s been a bit more winding, a bit more unexpected. But I think I’m finally where I’m meant to be.

Contant me: [email protected]

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