Columbia Electrical Engineering Celebrates 2026 MS & PhD Fellowship Recipients

The Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University is pleased to recognize 23 MS & PhD students who received fellowships for the 2026 academic year, including 14 doctoral students and nine master's students.

These fellowships recognize students for their academic achievements, research potential, and contributions to engineering and technology. This year's recipients bring diverse academic and professional backgrounds to Columbia, with interests ranging from semiconductor devices and integrated circuits to machine learning, biomedical engineering, and renewable energy.

Meet the 2026 fellowship recipients below:

PhD Fellowship Recipients

• Presidential Fellowship

Kevin Dai

Kevin Dai is a first-year PhD student in Electrical Engineering, advised by Professor Savannah Eisner in the ETHER Lab. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where his research focused on semiconductor device modeling using multiphysics simulations. At Columbia, Dai is developing gallium nitride-based electronics for space applications while continuing his research in semiconductor device modeling.

Odysseas Kotzampasis

Odysseas Kotzampasis is a first-year PhD student working with Professor Kenneth Shepard in the Bioelectronic Systems Laboratory. He received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in integrated circuit design and semiconductor technology. His previous research included developing custom accelerator designs and gaining experience in digital integrated circuits and semiconductor fabrication. At Columbia, he focuses on miniaturized CMOS electronic systems for biological applications, with the goal of developing autonomous devices capable of operating within and interacting with living cells.

Martin Stojkovski Trpceski

Martin Stojkovski Trpceski is a first-year PhD student in Professor Keren Bergman's Lightwave Research Laboratory. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rochester with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His previous research explored high-power laser control systems and mid-infrared-driven secondary sources. At Columbia, he plans to investigate photonic integrated circuit design for high-performance computing and high-bandwidth optical interconnects.

• Blavatnik Fellowship

Weiyu Chen

Weiyu Chen is a first-year PhD student advised by Professor Nima Mesgarani. Her research lies at the intersection of brain-computer interfaces, neural signal processing, and artificial intelligence. She aims to deepen the understanding of human cognition while developing intelligent systems that can interact more effectively with people.

• Wei Family Foundation Fellowship

Duan Godwin

Duan Godwin is a PhD candidate at Columbia University's Lightwave Research Laboratory, advised by Professor Keren Bergman. During his undergrad at Princeton, he studied Electrical and Computer Engineering with a concentration in Quantum Information and Applied Physics.

• Avanessians Doctoral Fellowships for Engineering

Shiyu Wang

Shiyu Wang is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering advised by Professor John Wright. Her research focuses on high-dimensional data analysis and efficient machine learning for scientific applications.

• Byron Fellowship

Yusang Bejarano Ley

Yusang Bejarano Ley is an MS/PhD student in Electrical Engineering and a member of Professor Kenneth Shepard's Bioelectronic Systems Laboratory. He received his BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2026. As an undergraduate, he developed an impedance-based microfluidic platform for monitoring sickle cell disease. His current research interests include analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for applications in hematology and neurology.

Zisis Foufas

Zisis Foufas is a first-year PhD student working with Professor Kenneth Shepard in the Bioelectronic Systems Laboratory. He earned an integrated BS-MEng degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, where he researched ultra-low-power analog circuits for machine learning applications. He also studied electromagnetic metasurfaces at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. His research interests center on low-power mixed-signal integrated circuit design, particularly miniaturized circuits for biomedical applications.

• Chiang Chen Fellowship

Chenyuan Chu

Chenyuan Chu is a first-year PhD student advised by Professor Mingoo Seok. He received his BEng in Integrated Circuit Design and Integrated Systems from Peking University in 2026. His research interests include digital very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design and analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits.

• French Fellowship

Longling (Gloria) Geng

Longling (Gloria) Geng is a first-year PhD student working with Professor James Anderson in the Anderson Lab. She earned her MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2026 and her BS in Computer Science, with a minor in Applied Mathematics, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2024. Her research focuses on large language models, AI agents, and world models, particularly their applications in reasoning, planning, control, and optimization.

Matan Ophir

Matan Ophir is a first-year PhD student joining Professor Keren Bergman's Lightwave Research Laboratory. He received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Technion as part of the Lapidim Excellence Program and previously worked as a software performance engineer at NVIDIA. At Columbia, he hopes to combine his expertise in software and systems engineering with photonics research to advance high-performance computing.

• Higgins Fellowship

Venkat Suprabath Bitra

Venkat Suprabath Bitra is a first-year PhD student advised by Professor Homayoon Beigi in the Nonlinear Control Lab. He earned his MS in Computer Science from Columbia University and an integrated MTech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIIT Bangalore. His research spans machine learning, signal processing, and control systems, with interests in audio modeling, large language model interpretability, embedded AI, computer vision, and computational biology. His work at Columbia has included efficient audio synthesis, AI interpretability, and on-device perception for autonomous systems.

• Izzo Family Fellowship

Andy Feng Chen

Andy Feng Chen is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering who joined the Lipson Nanophotonics Group in fall 2026. He earned a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a BA in Computer Science from the University of Rochester. His previous research explored terahertz spectroscopy, nanoelectronic devices, materials characterization, and thin-film fabrication. He also worked at Amazon Web Services on silicon validation and signal integrity for chiplet-based systems. At Columbia, his research focuses on silicon and integrated photonics for faster, more efficient computing systems.

• Robert and Rosemarie Schrage Engineering Fellowship

Jaehyun (Jesse) Cho

Jaehyun (Jesse) Cho is a first-year PhD student advised by Professor Kenneth Shepard. He graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University with a BS in Electrical Engineering, where he conducted research on CMOS integrated circuits for transient electronics. His current research focuses on analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for optical neural interfaces.

MS Fellowship Recipients

• Dean's MS Academic Excellence Fellowship

Max Shevell Hines

Max Shevell Hines is a first-year MS student in Electrical Engineering. He graduated from Princeton University in 2025 with a BA in Physics, completing a senior thesis on X-ray detection in a field-reversed configuration plasma machine. His previous research also included cosmology studies through Princeton's collaboration with the Simons Observatory and an investigation of NCAA baseball pitch data. Before joining Columbia, he worked as a data analyst at Consumer Edge. At Columbia, he hopes to strengthen his engineering design skills and explore integrated circuits or signals and information.

Shreya Patel

Shreya Patel is a first-year MS student in Electrical Engineering. She earned BS degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science from Rutgers University and currently works as a software engineer at Microsoft. Passionate about medical device innovation, Patel aims to develop expertise in energy-efficient circuit design and point-of-care medical devices. She hopes to pursue a career in biomedical research and development, creating accessible and reliable diagnostic technologies to improve patient care.

Cole Shimokaji

Cole Shimokaji is a first-year MS student in Electrical Engineering specializing in Smart Electric Energy. He earned his BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology, where he researched high-mass X-ray binaries and the atmospheres of exotic stars. He also completed two internships with CarMax's Data Science and Machine Learning group, developing models to support customer engagement and sales. At Columbia, he has shifted his focus toward sustainability and aims to advance his knowledge of renewable energy and power systems to support a net-zero carbon future.

Benedetto Kevin Skirde

Benedetto Kevin Skirde is an MS student in Electrical Engineering specializing in Smart Electric Energy. He earned his bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University and currently works as an electrical engineering intern with Sargent & Lundy's Nuclear Power Group. His previous experience includes electrical and power system design for solar energy development and electric boats. His interests include clean energy systems, electric vehicles, energy storage, and power electronics.

Nikhil Mahalingam

Nikhil Mahalingam is a first-year MS student in Computer Engineering. He graduated from Rutgers University with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mathematics. He previously interned as a software engineer at Major League Baseball and conducted research in computer vision at Rutgers University, physics-informed neural networks at Washington State University, and hardware security at the University of Delaware. At Columbia, he hopes to explore the mathematical foundations of generative AI, with a focus on algorithm discovery and computational efficiency.

Anna Petrbokova

Anna Petrbokova is a first-year MS student in Computer Engineering. She graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering. As an undergraduate, she co-led a research team in the university's Sensors, Automation and Energy Laboratory, developing a sensor network to measure air quality in instructional laboratories. She also co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on the project. Previously, she interned as a software engineer at Supio, a legal technology startup. At Columbia, she plans to deepen her knowledge of operating systems and systems security.

Devin Bourgeois, Branden Bae, and Ezra Cohen are also recipients of the Dean’s MS Academic Excellence Fellowship.

The Department of Electrical Engineering congratulates all 2026 fellowship recipients and looks forward to supporting their academic journeys and research contributions at Columbia Engineering.