Daehyeok Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, has received a 2025 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his project “Toward Programmable NICs as Multi‑Tenant Cloud Resources.” The award provides $622,738 over five years to support his work developing NicOS, a new operating system designed to turn programmable network interface cards (NICs) into secure, sharable resources for AI data centers.
Kim’s research addresses a gap in current data center infrastructure: programmable NICs are powerful but underutilized. NicOS aims to enable a “NIC‑as‑a‑service” model, sharing NIC capabilities across workloads, improving security, efficiency, and performance in multi‑tenant environments. This work has the potential to reshape AI infrastructure design and drive broader adoption of programmable hardware in the cloud.
Despite their capabilities, programmable NICs remain difficult to share across workloads due to their complexity. “A programmable NIC is like a super-efficient kitchen appliance that’s only used for basic tasks because it’s too complicated to share or adjust for different needs. NicOS aims to simplify the management and sharing of these NIC resources among multiple users and applications in the cloud, enabling them to reach their full potential,” explains Kim.” explains Kim.
He will also integrate NicOS into UT Computer Science curriculum and contribute to open‑source communities, reinforcing the department’s commitment to practical, community‑driven innovation.
Kim joined UT Austin in August 2023 after completing a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University. He co‑leads UT’s Networked Systems Research Group and focuses on systems and networking research including programmable infrastructure, cellular networks, and AI‑optimized network transport.
“Many colleagues at UTCS played a crucial role in helping to shape the core ideas of my research plan. Their guidance enables me to write a solid proposal in my first year as a faculty member and secure this award, especially given the challenging circumstances this year.” said Kim.
Kim’s NSF CAREER Award builds on a growing portfolio of federal and industry support, including a 2024 NSF NeTS grant ($1.08 M), significant equipment gifts from AMD, and a $25,000 Catalyst Grant from UT’s College of Natural Sciences.
The project builds on Kim’s ongoing work in programmable infrastructure and contributes to the broader effort to make AI data centers more efficient, secure, and scalable.