News | September 2, 2024
ECE Welcomes Assistant Professor, Di Luo
Di Luo joined UCLA Samueli in July 2024 as an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and is a member of the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, which was created by UCLA Samueli and the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences.
Prior to the appointment, Luo was a fellow at the National Science Foundation-funded Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions, which is affiliated with the Center for Theoretical Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Physics Department of Harvard University.
Luo’s research explores areas in AI + Science (the intersection of artificial intelligence and science) and quantum computation. He focuses on developing machine learning and quantum algorithms for discoveries and advancements in science and engineering, as well as designing new theories and algorithms for AI and robotics inspired by mathematics and physics.
He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he also received two master’s degrees in mathematics and physics, respectively. During his graduate studies, Luo held internships with Google Quantum AI, the Flatiron Institute in computational research in New York and the Vector Institute — a Canadian nonprofit research organization focused on artificial intelligence.
Luo was the recipient of a Charles P. Slichter Fellowship and an Excellence in Teaching Award from UIUC. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from The University of Hong Kong.
ECE Welcomes Assistant Professor, Liz Izhikevich
Liz Izhikevich joined UCLA Samueli in July 2024 as an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Izhikevich’s research focuses on improving the internet’s performance and security. This includes building systems that collect data about the behaviors of networks, users and attackers, and use quantitative analysis to find operational challenges.
Among the honors Izhikevich has received are a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation, a graduate research fellowship in science and engineering from Stanford University, an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Rising Star Award from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and several awards honoring her community service and teaching.
In the last year of her doctoral program at Stanford, Izhikevich also was a research fellow at Netflix, where she worked in collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink to improve satellite-internet streaming quality.
Izhikevich obtained her bachelor’s in computer science with a minor in mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science from UC San Diego. She also received a master’s and Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford.
ECE Welcomes Assistant Professor, Leo Zhou
Leo Zhou will join UCLA Samueli as an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in November 2024. Currently, Zhou is a DuBridge postdoctoral research associate in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology.
Zhou’s research interests lie at the intersection of physics, math and computer science. In particular, he is interested in quantum information theory, mathematical optimization, computational complexity and many-body physics — the study of emergent physical properties of many interacting particles. He has worked on problems in quantum algorithms and architectures, quantum complexity theory, and practical quantum applications.
At Caltech, Zhou held a Burke Prize fellowship and received the Outstanding Paper Award in 2022 at the 17th Conference on Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication and Cryptology. He was also awarded a grant for an Excellent Contributed Talk at the QC40: Physics of Computation Conference, which was jointly organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and IBM.
While pursuing his doctorate in physics at Harvard University, Zhou worked as an intern for Google Quantum AI. He was also a visiting researcher at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Zhou received his bachelor’s degree from MIT in physics and mathematics, with a minor in economics.
Since early 2023, Zhou has been an advisor to BlueQubit, a start-up quantum software company.
Ozcan lab published a new article in Light: Science & Applications (Springer Nature) on pyramid diffractive optical networks for unidirectional image magnification and demagnification
Nonlinear encoding of optical information can enhance optical processors’ performance, enabling them to better handle complex tasks such as image classification, quantitative phase imaging, and encryption.
Please see the full article and press release.
Paper published jointly by Distinguished Adjunct Professor Asad M Madni and Professor Jalali’s group
A recent paper, “Time-Stretch with Continuous-Wave Lasers,” jointly published by Distinguished Adjunct Professor Asad M Madni and Professor Jalali’s group has been selected as one of Applied Physics Reviews’ best and promoted as a Featured Article.
Please see the full article here.
Distinguished Professor Rahmat-Samii was the Keynote Speaker at 2024 International Symposium on Applied Computational EM, Xi’an, China
Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii delivered a keynote speech titled “Novel AI Solution Algorithms for Electromagnetic and Antenna Challenges” at the 2024 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Symposium, held in Xi’an, China, from August 16-19, 2024. The symposium attracted over 700 attendees and numerous exhibitors. During his presentation, Professor Rahmat-Samii provided an overview of the historical development of advanced electromagnetic (EM) computational techniques, tracing progress from the age of slide rules to quantum computing, with a focus on modern AI and machine learning methods. In 2017, Professor Rahmat-Samii received the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society’s highest honor, the ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award, with a citation for his “pioneering contributions in the analysis, optimization, novel designs, and measurements of modern antennas for diverse applications.”
Distinguished Professor Rahmat-Samii was the Keynote Speaker at 2024 International Symposium on Applied Computational EM, Xi’an, China
Please see the full article and press release.
Awards
Yuzhu Li received the Best Presentation Prize at the SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference
Yuzhu Li, a PhD student at Ozcan Lab, has received the Best Presentation Prize for the Early Stage Researchers at the SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference in San Diego.
Upcoming Ph.D. Oral Defenses
9/11
Ph.D. Student: Sadman Sakib Rahman
Time: 1-3pm
Room: Tesla Room
11/13
Ph.D. Student: Jialin Dong4
Time: 11am-1pm
Room: Faraday Room
Job Opportunities
Design Verification Engineer at Apple
Do you have a passion for invention and self-challenge? This position gives you an
opportunity to be a part of one of the most cutting edge and key projects that Apple’s
Silicon Engineering Group has embarked upon to-date. As a Design Verification
Engineer on their team, you’ll be at the center of the verification effort within our silicon design group responsible for crafting and productizing state-of-the-art Cellular SoCs!
You will have the opportunity to contribute to the verification effort of a set of complex SOCs delivering the Cellular solution. You will integrate multiple sophisticated IP level DV environments, craft highly reusable best-in-class UVM based test bench, implement effective coverage driven and directed test suites, deploy new tools and methodologies to deliver chips that are right-first-time. By collaborating with other product development groups across Apple, you can push the industry boundaries of what cellular systems can do and improve the product experience for our customers across the world!
Through this experience, you will learn all aspects of a large scale SOC design,
Complex verification test benches, different types of SOC architectures, multiple high
speed protocols, industry-standard low power architecture, best in class DV methodology, verification on accelerated platforms, knowledge on Cellular protocol, FW-HW interactions, complexities of multi-chip SOC debug architecture, etc.
Key Qualifications:
MS in EE or CS. Coursework in Digital Design, Computer Architecture, Object Oriented
Programming, Networking Protocol. Programming experience in SystemVerilog or
Python or C++ or Java.
Must be graduating by Dec ’24.
Please send your resume to j_lou@apple.com.
Newsletter Submissions
To be included in future newsletters, please send the latest news, awards, publications and any upcoming PhD oral defenses to the Chair’s assistant, Winda Mak, at wmak@seas.ucla.edu. Please include “newsletter submission” in the subject line. The ECE newsletters will be sent bimonthly on the first and third Mondays of the month. Please ensure all submissions are received by the Wednesday before distribution to be included in the newsletter.