The six engineering departments nominated 16 recipients in total based on their achievements in courses, research and teaching.

“Vice Dean Antoine Kahn and I are delighted to honor these graduate students who have excelled in every dimension — classes, research, teaching and leadership — during their time at Princeton,” said Dean Andrea Goldsmith. “These scholars have greatly advanced knowledge in their fields and are poised to have an even greater positive impact as they move to the next stage of their careers. Their future success knows no bounds. I also congratulate their faculty advisers who have been dedicated mentors and advocates for their students, and hence have been instrumental in their success.”

The four graduate student recipients from electrical and computer engineering are:

Kaixuan Huang

Huang’s research focuses on deep learning theory, large language models, reinforcement learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for science. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and applied mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University in Beijing, China. 

Adviser: Mengdi Wang

Emir Ali Karahan

Karahan primarily works on AI-enabled design synthesis of complex integrated circuits and chips. He holds a bachelor’s in electrical and electronics engineering from Bilkent University in Ankara, Türkiye.

Adviser: Kaushik Sengupta

Chengyu Wang

Wang’s research combines physics and materials science to study exotic quantum phenomena in ultra-clean two-dimensional (2D) materials. He holds a bachelor’s degree in material physics from Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Adviser: Mansour Shayegan

Wenhao Zhan

Zhan’s research focuses primarily on the mathematical foundations of reinforcement learning. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Advisers: Jason D. Lee, Yuxin Chen