Senior Spotlight: Fletch Rydell’s Deep Dive into Computer Architecture

Fletch Rydell is graduating with a double major in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and computer science and a minor in mathematics. Rydell has studied, taught and researched computer architecture extensively and was chosen as a 2025 Faculty Scholar, the highest honor given by Duke faculty to undergraduate students. The Southern California native will head to New York after graduation to work as an FPGA engineer. Read on to learn what drew Rydell to Duke, how computer architecture became his focus and what he’s enjoyed most about teaching.

What was your path to Duke?

I visited at the end of my senior year when I was deciding where to go, and I really liked all the people I met here. Everyone seemed nice and interesting, and I really liked that people were well-rounded and had a diversity of interests. Even though I’m one of the most pure computer engineering people I know, it’s nice being in a place with lots of different kinds of people.

What has been your focus in ECE?

I’ve been very focused on computer architecture, the study of how computers work. That started freshman year when I took ECE 250, the computer architecture class. When you write a computer program, it’s a bunch of instructions that the computer should do, and computer architecture asks: How do you build a machine that actually does all those things? What are the different parts? How do you make it fast? How do you make it power efficient?

I took that class, got really interested in it, and then followed that path into other classes. Most of the classes I’ve taken here and most of my focus have been in that area. Starting sophomore spring, I also began doing research in computer architecture, so that’s definitely been my focus.

What has your research experience been like?

I’ve been doing research on memory systems with Professor Daniel Sorin, who taught the intro to computer architecture class and the graduate architecture class I took. Every computer has memory that stores the data it’s operating on, and modern computers have lots of different components. You’ll have a CPU that does the main processing, GPUs for AI and graphics workloads and often other accelerators like network controllers for interfacing with the outside world. All these things communicate through memory and share data between components. I research how we can build systems for sharing memory performantly and efficiently, and in a way that programmers can understand.

Who have been some of your favorite professors?

Professor Daniel Sorin is an obvious one since he taught classes I loved and is also my research advisor.

Professor Tyler Bletsch is also great. I’ve taken two classes with him on cybersecurity and digital systems. He’s one of the most engaging, excited lecturers I’ve had. He’s also really sharp. When you’re presenting a project, he’s actively asking questions, and you really have to know what you’re talking about.

Professor John Board taught a class in the fall on the history of computing, and that was a really fun class. I study so much about current computing systems and the future, so it was cool to step back to the invention of counting and see how everything developed through mechanical calculators to electronic computers.

You’ve also been a TA for several semesters. What has that experience been like?

You know how people say you don’t really understand something until you teach it? I definitely think that’s true. 

I’ve helped teach other classes, but I’m now in my sixth semester as a TA for ECE 250 (Computer Architecture). For the past four semesters, I’ve also been the head TA for that class, so that’s involved more thinking about how we should change things every semester to best help students.

I’ve really loved having an impact on the class. It’s fun to feel like we’re a teaching team with the professors and the other TAs. I like that it combines the computer engineering concepts I’m interested in with the challenge of figuring out how to explain them simply and clearly. And the result is that you can actually see people learn, which is really rewarding.

What’s next for you?

Starting at the end of the summer, I’m going to work at Jane Street in New York. They’re a trading firm, and I’ll be working on the computer engineering side of things, specifically on custom hardware they use for low-latency applications and interfacing with financial exchanges.

I got into it through a student from ECE 350 who was in my lab and had interned there over the summer. He said I might like it, so I applied, interviewed and interned there last summer. I really liked it, so I’m excited to go back.

What are your biggest takeaways from the last four years?

I feel like I’ve been exposed to so much intellectually. Every class I’ve taken has had so much interesting stuff to learn, and there have been so many great professors. Every student I talk to is doing something interesting or cares deeply about something. It’s really been an amazing place to learn and become a better person and a better engineer.