PhD, Electrical & Computer Engineering Expected Dec 2026
Dissertation: Labeling IP Cores in Unlabeled FPGA Netlists
Advisor: Dr. Jeff Goeders
Curriculum Vitæ
Research Interests
Graph neural networks and graph-theoretic algorithms applied to hardware security and reliability — hardware IP protection, netlist reverse engineering, and trojan detection in FPGA and ASIC netlists. Exploring type systems to enhance reliability of hardware description languages.
Education
Brigham Young University
BS, Computer Engineering Apr 2022
Minor: Math, Computer Science
Publications
D. Dahl and J. Goeders, “IPLens: GNNs for Fine-grained IP Core Identification” (in preparation)
D. Dahl, K. Faulkner, J. Usevitch and J. Goeders, “Neurocore: Characterizing the Performance of GNNs for Configurable IP Core Identification in FPGA Netlists,” ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems (under review)
D. Dahl, R. McKendrick and J. Goeders, “RandSoC: Generating Large, Diverse Synthetic FPGA Benchmark Suites for ML Tooling Research”, 2026 IEEE International Conference on Field Programmable Technology (ICFPT), Honolulu, HI, USA, 2026 (to appear).
D. Dahl, K. Faulkner, J. Usevitch and J. Goeders, “Neurocore: A GNN Approach to Configurable IP Core Identification in FPGA Netlists,” 2025 IEEE International Conference on Field Programmable Technology (ICFPT), Shanghai, China, 2025, pp. 137–145, doi: 10.1109/ICFPT67023.2025.00026.
D. Dahl, C. Simpson, K. Faulkner, B. Nelson and J. Goeders, “IPRec and Isoblaze: Fuzzy Subcircuit Isomorphism for IP Detection in Physical Netlists,” 2023 IEEE Physical Assurance and Inspection of Electronics (PAINE), Huntsville, AL, USA, 2023, pp. 1–7, doi: 10.1109/PAINE58317.2023.10318012.
Teaching Experience
Teaching Assistant · Embedded Linux Systems (ECEn 427) Winter 2026
Duties: lab tutor, grading, writing grading infrastructure, enhancing exams.
Enrollment: ≈40
Teaching Assistant · Embedded Systems (ECEn 330) Fall 2025
Duties: lab tutor, grading.
Enrollment: ≈120
Instructor · Computer Systems (ECEn 224) Spring 2025
Duties: office hours, grading, writing lectures, lecturing, writing exams.
Enrollment: ≈20
Undergraduate research mentor Spring 2023–Winter 2025
Outcomes: onboarding, training, coauthor on papers (K. Faulkner)
Teaching Assistant · Digital Design (ECEn 220) Fall 2020
Duties: grading
Enrollment: ≈120
Missionary · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Fall 2016–Summer 2018
Duties: teaching, training and organizing team of 16
Experience
Graduate Researcher Aug 2022–Present
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
- Generated synthetic datasets of up to 5,000 circuits (44 GB) for training and evaluation
- Rearchitected FPGA CAD orchestration system for parallel execution and maintainability
- Replaced netlist reverse engineering program, decreasing runtime by 338× and increasing F1 score by 2×
- Developed graph neural network models for FPGA IP identification, improving F1 score by 30–80% while reducing runtime from linear in the number of IP cores to linear per netlist
- Designed and implemented hierarchical Bayesian model to analyze the performance of GNNs with respect to graph structure
- Developed open format for extracting netlists from proprietary tools
- Developed hash-based IP recognition algorithm in Standard ML
- Developed tool to visualize and characterize performance of hash algorithms for hash-based IP recognition
Undergraduate Researcher Jan 2021–Apr 2022
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
- Developed a declarative framework for generating FPGA bitstream edge cases, increasing fuzzing coverage for an open-source FPGA toolchain
- Constructed FPGA trojan horses to characterize trojan detection algorithm
Projects
Forth Virtual Machine (C) GitHub
- Designed port-mapped stack-based virtual machine with extensible peripheral support
- Implemented associated assembler and compiler
QFM Orthodox File Manager (C) Codeberg
- Designed lightweight tool to connect pairs of shells with a visual file display
Guac Incremental Computation Library (Standard ML) Codeberg
- Designed a library supporting incremental updates through computations
Shapes (Standard ML) Codeberg
- Designed a shape-functor fold/unfold/map library based on Charity
Technical Skills
C, Standard ML, Python, TCL, System Verilog, Vivado, Unix, Git, PyG
Service
Treasurer Winter 2021–Fall 2022
BYU IEEE Student Branch