UW-Madison ECE

09/07/2026

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is proud to present the 2026–2027 ECE Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series, featuring leaders whose groundbreaking work is shaping the future of technology and society.

The series kicks off September 8 with Jinjun Xiong, Founding Dean of the UTSA College of AI, Cyber and Computing.

“Scaling Earthly AI to Help Children with Speech and Language Service Needs”

Nearly 3.4 million children in the U.S. require speech and language services, yet a shortage of speech-language pathologists makes it difficult to provide the individualized support many children need. Dr. Xiong will discuss how advanced AI technologies could help scale the availability of speech and language services, along with the research challenges involved in developing AI systems that can help address this critical need.

Throughout the academic year, ECE hosts thought-provoking talks from leaders advancing research across electrical and computer engineering, artificial intelligence, computing, materials, sensing and more.

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲–𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗽:
September 8: Jinjun Xiong, University of Texas at San Antonio
October 5: Gabriel Rebeiz, University of California, San Diego
November 3: Mahta Moghaddam, University of Southern California
December 4: Federico Capasso, Harvard University
March 1: Seth Ariel Tongay, Arizona State University
April 5: David Pan, University of Texas at Austin
May 3: Tony Low, University of Minnesota

Full list of ECE events: https://engineering.wisc.edu/departments/electrical-computer-engineering/events/

09/04/2026

For four undergraduate ECE students, the opportunity to pursue hands-on research is taking an exciting step forward.

All four have received competitive undergraduate research fellowships. These awards provide funding and research opportunities that allow students to explore their interests, work closely with faculty mentors and gain valuable experience as researchers. Undergraduate research is a distinctive strength of the ECE experience at UW–Madison, and these four students are putting their ideas into action through their fellowship projects.

Ahmed Ibrahim — Electrical Engineering
Exploring how graphene can be transformed into ultrathin diamond-like materials for future semiconductor, quantum and clean energy applications.

Jake Yun — Computer Engineering and Computer Sciences
Developing new ways to evaluate AI foundation models for medical imaging.

Heng (Dariush) Lasiang — Electrical Engineering and Physics
Modeling thermophotovoltaic cells that convert heat into electricity.

Carrie (Yuhan) Xing — Electrical Engineering
Developing motion-powered energy harvesting technology to extend the battery life of sports headphones.


UW-Madison College of Engineering UW-Madison Department of Materials Science and Engineering

For four undergraduate researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at UW–Madison, the opportunity to pursue hands-on research is taking an exciting step forward. All four have...

09/03/2026

Working as a camp counselor helping children impacted by cancer, ECE undergraduate Brooke Weiss discovered the kind of engineer she wants to be.

Over five summers at Sunrise Day Camp, Weiss saw firsthand how technology, accessibility and thoughtful design can improve lives. Now, as a UW-Madison computer engineering senior, she's combining those lessons with technical skills in digital systems, embedded systems and hardware design, with the goal of developing medical devices that make a meaningful impact.

UW-Madison College of Engineering
Sunrise Day Camp-Long Island

For five summers, computer engineering senior Brooke Weiss worked at Sunrise Day Camp, a camp that serves children with cancer and their siblings. What began as an opportunity to combine her interests in technology and...

09/02/2026

And we’re back!

It’s the first day of the semester, which means it’s time for ECE classroom selfies! 📸

Welcome, ECE Badgers. Here’s to another semester of learning, building, collaborating and making things happen. 🦡

Assistant Teaching Professor Setareh Behroozi shared two selfies from today's ECE 352 Digital System Fundamentals and ECE 252 Introduction to Computer Engineering classes.
Our newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Hezi Zhang, joined students for a quick photo of her section of ECE 252 Introduction to Computer Engineering too!

UW-Madison College of Engineering

09/01/2026

Congratulations to ECE PhD students Chengling Xu and Huiwen Zhang on receiving the Best Student Paper Award at IEEE IMNS 2026, the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Multimedia, Networking, and Security.

Xu and Zhang, advised by ECE Assistant Professor Feng Ye, were recognized for their paper, “LLM-supported 3D Modeling Tool for Radio Radiance Field Reconstruction.”

Their work developed an AI-powered tool that allows engineers to build and edit 3D environments simply by describing them through everyday text prompts. The system automatically translates these natural language commands into 3D scenes and connects them directly to wireless channel simulation pipelines. This eliminates tedious manual 3D modeling, making indoor network planning and spectrum simulation significantly faster and more accessible.


UW-Madison College of Engineering

08/31/2026

ECE alum Sanket Deshpande (PhDECE'25) is putting cutting edge engineering to work on a global challenge.

As CEO of Madison based Dirac Labs, which he co-founded in 2023 while still in graduate school, Deshpande is leading the development of quantum sensors designed to enable navigation in places where GPS is unavailable or unreliable, from aircraft and drones to underground and underwater environments.

Dirac’s innovative approach combines quantum sensing, diamond materials, photonics, AI and semiconductor manufacturing to create scalable, low power navigation technology.

We’re proud to see ECE alumni like Deshpande turn groundbreaking research into technologies with the potential to make a real world impact.

Read more about Dirac Labs and its work in EE Times: https://www.eetimes.com/u-s-startup-fields-quantum-sensors-to-reduce-reliance-on-gps/

Wisconsin Alumni UW-Madison College of Engineering
Photo credit from article.

08/28/2026

Welcome to ECE, new Badger grad students!

Today we welcomed our newest graduate students to the UW–Madison Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering! Our PhD, MS Research, and accelerated MS students (Professional MS and Machine Learning and Signal Processing MS) spent the morning getting to know the department, learning what to expect as they begin their graduate journeys and connecting with faculty, staff and fellow students.

Interim Department Chair Parmesh Ramanathan kicked off the event with a welcome to all.

Looking to advance your career by becoming an ECE grad student? Explore our graduate programs and learn more about degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering: https://engineering.wisc.edu/departments/electrical-computer-engineering/degrees/

08/27/2026

Congratulations to Yoganand Biradavolu, a fifth-year ECE PhD student, on winning the Low Power Design Contest at The International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED) 2026.

Advised by ECE Associate Professor Bhuvana Krishnaswamy, Biradavolu’s award-winning paper, “EC-Sense: Ultra-Low-Power Wireless Soil Moisture Sensing using Energy Harvesting,” presents an innovative approach to wireless soil moisture monitoring.

EC-Sense uses RF energy-harvesting behavior to estimate soil moisture with buried sensing tags. This approach could enable longer-lasting, lower-maintenance soil monitoring for agriculture and environmental sensing applications.

Congratulations to Biradavolu on this outstanding achievement.

UW-Madison College of Engineering

08/26/2026

$27 million to accelerate discovery and impact at UW–Madison.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is investing $27 million in four high-impact, transdisciplinary research initiatives focused on fusion energy, national security, quantum technology and brain health.

The UW-Madison College of Engineering is playing a key role in two of these efforts. The fusion initiative will advance materials discovery and advanced manufacturing technologies needed for future fusion power plants, while the Wisconsin Initiative on National Security (WINS), co-led by ECE Professor and Associate Dean for Research David Rothamer, will connect researchers with industry and federal partners to advance technologies with both civilian and national security applications.

These investments build on UW–Madison’s research strengths while creating new opportunities for partnerships, innovation, student development and economic impact.

It’s a powerful example of what can happen when researchers across disciplines, and with partners beyond the university, come together to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges.

Read more about WARF’s investment and all four initiatives:
https://engineering.wisc.edu/news/27m-warf-investment-fuels-next-frontiers-in-research/?utm_campaign=coe_mkt&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin_uwmadengr&utm_content=coe

Pictured: ECE Associate Professor Jennifer Choy’s research focuses on the development of quantum sensing platforms. Photo: Althea Dotzour

08/25/2026

Major recognition for UW–Madison ECE research at !

Members of the eLab Research Group received a top honor at DAC 2026, The Chips to Systems Conference, considered the oldest and most prestigious conference in electronic design automation and semiconductor-system design.

ECE PhD students Alish Kanani and Lukas Pfromm were co-first authors on a paper that received the ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES) Best Paper Award. Only one paper published in TODAES each year receives this distinction, recognizing originality, timeliness, potential impact and overall quality.

The paper, “MFIT: Multi-Fidelity Thermal Modeling for 2.5D and 3D Multi-Chiplet Architectures,” tackles one of the major challenges facing advanced computing systems: thermal management.

As high-power chiplets are placed next to one another or stacked vertically, heat can create performance and reliability challenges. MFIT gives system designers fast and accurate ways to predict and manage heat across 2.5D and 3D chiplet architectures.

Its multi-fidelity approach ranges from detailed finite-element models for chip and package development to faster models for architecture exploration and cooling design—and even millisecond-scale models that can provide real-time thermal information for workload scheduling, dynamic power management and hotspot prevention.

And because MFIT is open source, researchers and engineers can modify, validate and integrate it into their own design workflows. The project is already being used by academic labs and industry research groups.

Kanani and Pfromm were advised by ECE's Gene Amdahl Professor Umit Ogras and Dugald C. Jackson Assistant Professor Eric Tervo. Other UW–Madison authors include Ogras, Tervo and MS student Parth Solanki.

Members of the eLab Research Group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received major awards at DAC 2026, The Chips to System Conference,...