UC Davis Electrical and Computer Engineering

Pranta Saha, a Ph.D. candidate in electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Davis, is among the recipients of the inaugural Costas John Spanos Semiconductor Manufacturing Awards, presented by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute, or CITRIS.

The awards recognize exceptional graduate student researchers who are advancing the future of semiconductor devices, technology, design and manufacturing across the four campuses of CITRIS: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz.

Read more about Pranta's research at the link, https://ece.ucdavis.edu/news/grad-student-inaugural-spanos-semiconductor-manufacturing-award

The André Knoesen ECE Teaching Lab represents a full-circle moment, not only for Taheri, but for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s commitment to hands-on learning.

“André is one of the most creative people I know,” Taheri said. “He is someone who has created a new way of thinking about education and is open to thinking outside the box.”

https://ece.ucdavis.edu/news/alum-invests-future-aggie-engineers

Meriyah Deleon Haro, ECE student and founder and president of the "Women in Robotics" club at UC Davis, is turning a lifelong fascination with theme park technology into a career path, combining robotics, AI and electrical engineering to design immersive entertainment experiences.

Read more of Meriyah's journey at the link, https://bit.ly/4bAmh2l

We're excited for our next scheduled Distinguished Seminar this Friday, February 6th. University of Toronto Professor Stark Draper will be presenting, "Mitigating Stragglers in Distributed Computation and Optimization.

https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/events/mitigating-stragglers-distributed-computation-and-optimization

We're delighted to share our Winter Quarter schedule for the ECE Distinguished Seminar Series. The first seminar will be presented by Prof. Stark Draper, Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty from the University of Toronto.

Congratulations to Luca Cerny Oliveira on a successful PhD defense!

Luca's research focuses on finding ways to develop data and label efficient machine learning for the medical domain.

ECE Alum, Claudio Lopez Osses, M.S. ’20, Ph.D. ’22, is accelerating the next generation of nuclear science through the use of artificial intelligence at Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, or CNL, at the University of California, Davis.

Nuclear labs like CNL contain some of the most complicated machines ever built, such as particle accelerators. For decades, scientists have relied on sophisticated control systems that are meticulously maintained and calibrated.

In fact, these machines are so complex that only a highly skilled and trained individual on the nuclear lab’s team can understand, monitor and maintain them. This means that when a problem arises, it is not only very difficult for the team to address but also to return the system to its normal state.

The control center of the cyclotron in the Crocker Nuclear Lab in John Jungerman Hall at UC Davis. Alum Claudio Lopez Osses is using AI to automate oversight on complicated control systems, such as this one, to improve safety and efficiency in nuclear labs. (Gregory Urquiaga/ UC Davis)

To address this problem, Lopez Osses, who joined CNL as an R&D electrical engineer in 2023, is integrating AI systems into CNL’s control systems for nuclear machines. The AI system functions like that specialized team member, serving as the source of knowledge on how the system works and how to keep it running. Beyond automating what was once a time-consuming and delicate process, the AI system has demonstrated the ability to predict problems before they occur — something that was previously almost impossible.

Full article:

In On-Campus Lab, Alum Advances Nuclear Lab Control Systems with AI Electrical and computer engineer Claudio Lopez Osses, M.S. ’20, Ph.D. ’22, is accelerating the next generation of nuclear science through the use of artificial intelligence at Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, or CNL, at the University of California, Davis.

Congratulations to Asmita Asmita on her successful PhD Defense!

Her work advances fuzzing for bare-metal MCU firmware, introduces a framework for precise peripheral modeling, and explores how LLMs can improve seed generation and MCU documentation analysis.

Congratulations to Achintha Wijesinghe on his successful PhD defense!

Achintha’s research advances next-generation wireless systems through generative AI, semantic communication, and federated learning. His work develops generative models for semantic-level transmission and efficient image compression, allowing networks to communicate meaning rather than raw data. He also designs federated learning frameworks that adapt these models across heterogeneous devices, enabling scalable and privacy-preserving intelligence for future 6G networks

Congratulations to Calum Shelden on his successful PhD Defense!

Calum studies the Casimir effect, a physical phenomenon that typically leads two surfaces to stick together when placed mere nanometers apart as a result of quantum fluctuations present even in a vacuum. The Casimir force causes the surfaces of nano- and microscale mechanical devices to stick together, placing a lower limit on how small we can make mechanical devices, and can be leveraged for the design of nanolevitation devices with a force turned repulsive. Calum's research entailing the control of attractive and repulsive Casimir forces enables us to mitigate stiction issues with current devices and paves the way for future Casimir force-based devices.

Congratulations to Melissa Gulseren on her successful PhD Defense!

Melisa developed a MEMS-based infrared sensing platform that integrates high-Q resonators with engineered metasurfaces. Her research focuses on advancing device design, fabrication, and RF readout techniques to enable highly sensitive, room-temperature IR detection on a compact microscale chip.