UCLA Samueli Announces 10 Inaugural Semiconductor Hub Fellows

UCLA Samueli Announces 10 Inaugural Semiconductor Hub Fellows

UCLA Samueli
Inaugural doctoral fellows of the Semiconductor Hub at UCLA Samueli

Nov 3, 2026

UCLA Samueli

The Semiconductor Hub at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering has named 10 first-year doctoral students to its inaugural fellowship cohort, supporting research ranging from semiconductor materials and chip architecture to photonics and artificial intelligence.

Launched in May, the $125 million Semiconductor Hub brings together UCLA researchers and industry founding partners Broadcom, Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries, Meta and Synopsys to advance semiconductor technologies and workforce development.

The fellows will work closely with faculty and industry advisors. They will spend the first three years of their doctoral programs conducting fundamental research, the fourth year interning at one of the founding member companies and the fifth year completing their doctoral dissertations at UCLA.

“Our inaugural fellows are pursuing breakthrough research across the semiconductor ecosystem, from connectivity and computing to sensing and intelligent systems,” said Semiconductor Hub executive director and electrical and computer engineering adjunct professor Abhijeet Chakraborty. “By combining doctoral research with real-world challenges at our industry partners’ companies, the fellowship program will prepare the next generation of engineers to shape the future of semiconductor technology.”

Following is a list of the inaugural Semiconductor Hub Fellows, including their research interests and faculty advisors:

Uthman AdeyemiUthman Adeyemi
Materials Science and Engineering

  • Optical materials characterization and integration of experimental methods with computational analysis
  • Advisor: Alexander Balandin

Richard ChenRichard Chen
Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Modeling and design methodologies for 3D integrated circuit systems
  • Advisor: Puneet Gupta

Yuhang DuYuhang Du
Computer Science

  • Bridging model, system and hardware design to enable practical edge and physical AI
  • Advisor: Jason Cong

Nicholas GaninoNicholas Ganino
Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Using diffractive optical processors to enable faster, power-efficient biomedical imaging systems
  • Advisor: Aydogan Ozcan

Vikram IyerVikram Iyer
Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Computer and memory architecture, compute-in-memory and advanced packaging
  • Advisor: Subramanian Iyer

Kunal PaiKunal Pai
Computer Science

  • Software systems, programming languages, computer architecture and AI for code
  • Advisor: Miryung Kim

Shanidhya RudraShanidhya Rudra
Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • High-performance microwave-optical oscillators at the thermodynamic and quantum backaction limits, device physics and electronic-photonic integration
  • Advisor: Chee Wei Wong

Ruey-Chen (Rich) SoongRich Soong
Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • High-frequency integrated circuit and system-on-chip designs, including millimeter-wave frequency synthesizers and embedded reactive components
  • Advisor: M.C. Frank Chang

Ziyang WangZiyang Wang
Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Silicon photonics, integrated photonic devices and systems, and optical interconnects
  • Advisor: Mona Jarrahi

Yang (William) ZouYang (William) Zou
Computer Science

  • Developing AI systems and methodologies to make hardware design and acceleration more efficient
  • Advisor: Yizhou Sun