PhD Student · Computer Sciences · UW–Madison

Hayden Coffey

Madison, WI / hjcoffey@wisc.edu

Last updated February 2026

Portrait of Hayden Coffey

I am a PhD student in Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, advised by Dr. Michael Swift in the SCAIL group. I’m broadly interested in systems research, with a focus on tiered memory systems and machine learning.

I’m also interested in machine learning and data analysis, and how those methods can sharpen the low-level decisions the OS makes. This site is a hub for both my professional and personal interests.

Graduate Research Assistant

Fall 2021 – Present

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Advised by Dr. Michael Swift at SCAIL, with a focus on memory systems. Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Scholar in the JUMP 2.0 program on heterogeneous memory.

Part-Time Engineer

Fall 2024

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Worked remotely with the Pensando GPU Network Architecture team.

Summer Co-op/Intern

Summer 2023, 2024

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Worked in Santa Clara, California with the Pensando GPU Network Architecture team.

Graduate Research Assistant

Fall 2019 – Summer 2021

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Worked under the direction of Dr. Michael R. Jantz in the CORSys group on a system that utilizes a modified Zswap program to automatically mark, compress, and manage cold data.

Software Engineer Intern

Summer 2019

SAIC

Worked in Huntsville, Alabama, building software models and paradigms in Java on the Core team, letting other teams’ work combine into a single system.

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Fall 2018 – Spring 2019

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Worked under the direction of Dr. Austin Z. Henley and collaborated with Oregon State University on an Electron-based IDE written in TypeScript. Visually represented software projects with files viewed as cards that could be moved/stacked alongside annotations used to detail project designs.

Cell Biology Undergraduate Research Assistant

Fall 2016 – Spring 2017

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Assisted in research on the protein CDC42 and yeast cell division under the direction of Dr. Maitreyi Das.

PhD, Computer Sciences

2021 – Present

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Minor in Astronomy.

M.S., Computer Science

2019 – 2021

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

B.S., Computer Science

2015 – 2019

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Summa cum laude. Minor in Mathematics.