Max Hawkins

CSE PhD student at Georgia Tech helping maximize the net-benefit of computing on society

I’m a Computational Science and Engineering PhD student at Georgia Tech exploring various areas of computing at scale. Computing is useful for both science and everyday life, but its scale and new areas of innovation are straining both our society and our definitions of computing.

Research

Information Theory for Computing Performance Evaluation

My primary work involves exploring the use of information theory to evaluate computing performance more generally than current metrics (e.g. flop/s). The growing diversity of data types and emulation strategies exemplify that similar considerations are already happening. Here’s a 4-page preprint containing the main gist of the idea: Back to Bits: Extending Shannon’s Framework for Communication Performance to Computation.

Societal Impacts of Computing as a Physical Process

Computation isn’t some ethereal process. It’s a real, physical process that requires energy and often water. The large-scale adoption of AI has immense downstream effects on our energy grid, water resources, and society in general. More work needs to be done to quantify and reduce these effects. Specifically, I’m working on projects related to datacenter-energy grid cooperation, datacenter design and integration into urban design, and accurately quantifying and conveying a user’s HPC energy/water/carbon footprint.

Publications and Presentations (WIP)

  • ModSim ‘25, “AI Datacenter Power Curtailment - Potential, Challenges, and Implementation”, Max Hawkins and Richard Rex, Poster, Slides

  • More to be added…

I’m advised by Richard Vuduc and Spencer Bryngelson.

If you have a comment, question, or otherwise want to contact me, please email mhawkins60@gatech.edu. I’m also open to mentoring/collaborating with both undergraduate and graduate students in any of the above areas.

Personally, I enjoy working with my hands and touching grass when I’m not studying or coding. The implementations of that idea are seen in my interests in woodworking, gardening, and more recently, art. I also love to travel and try to keep myself open to unexpected, novel experiences.

Last Updated: Sept 25th, 2025