Meet EE 2024 Fall Fellowship Awardees

We are thrilled to announce the exceptional achievements of several Electrical Engineering graduate students from Columbia University who have been awarded prestigious fellowships this year. These fellowships recognize the outstanding academic performance, innovative research, and promising future of our students. Below, we are proud to introduce our 2024 Fellowship Awardees:

Presidential Fellow

Jacklyn Zhu 

Jacklyn Zhu is an incoming electrical engineering Ph.D. student at Columbia. She previously received the B.S. degree in Materials Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a specialization in electronic materials. Her prior research has focused on the electrical characterization of analog memory devices. Advised by Prof. Savannah Eisner, she joins the Eisner Transformative Harsh-Environment Electronics Research (ETHER) Laboratory working on wide-bandgap semiconductor devices.

Lilin Xu 

Lilin Xu will be joining the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia in Fall 2024 as a Ph.D. student. Before her PhD, Lilin obtained her M.E. and B.E. degrees from Control Science and Engineering College, Zhejiang University in June 2021 and March 2024. At Columbia, she will work at Columbia Intelligent and Connected Systems Lab (ICSL) supervised by Prof. Xiaofan (Fred) Jiang. Her research interests are centered around mobile sensing and AIoT (AI + IoT), with a primary focus on developing intelligent sensing systems for practical applications.

Alexander Oh

Alex is an incoming PhD student joining the Lightwave Research Laboratory under Prof. Keren Bergman. He recently received his Bachelors of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Vanderbilt University in 2024 with Summa Cum Laude. His past research primarily focused on device level photonics, and he is excited to continue this research path and expand into circuit and system level design at Columbia. For his research and academic goals, Alex aims to help push the limits of current applications of photonic devices for computation, while also discovering new areas in which photonics can be advantageous.

Blavatnik Fellow

Riki Shimizu 

Riki is an incoming MS/PhD in the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia. He graduated from Duke University in May 2024 with BS in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mathematics. As an undergraduate student, he worked on research projects involving neural signal processing, including simulation of transcranial direct current stimulation, machine learning for P300 speller, and building a novel algorithm for sleep spindle detection. At Columbia, he will join Professor Nima Mesgarani’s Neural Acoustic Processing Lab to research how language is processed in human brains. In the long run, he would like to develop a novel brain-computer interface to assist people with neurological diseases.

Byron Fellowship

William Ho 

William Ho is a first-year PhD student in Electrical Engineering at Columbia supervised by Prof. Zoran Kostic. He earned his bachelor’s in informatics and business from the University of Oslo before joining Columbia for his master’s in computer science as a Fulbright scholar. For his PhD, William will focus on developing speech processing systems aimed at identifying patients at risk of emergency hospitalization. Building on his experience in explainable AI, William hopes to enhance the trustworthiness of these systems.

Mathew Erickson 

Mathew Erickson is an incoming MS/PhD student in Electrical Engineering, supervised by Professor Ken Shepard of the Bioelectronic Systems Laboratory. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in May 2023, working at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab for a year before entering graduate school. His research interests include flexible and biocompatible circuits, including their power/communication methods, and novel ways to interface electronics with the human body for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.

Chiang Chen Fellowship 

Linyang He

Linyang He is a first-year PhD student in the Electrical Engineering department at Columbia. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Data Science from Fudan University and a Master’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. His research focuses on brain-computer interfaces for language and speech, utilizing AI models to study the neural mechanisms underlying human language processing. At Columbia, he will be joining Prof. Nima Mesgarani’s lab to continue exploring the mysteries of the neuroscience of language. Linyang is passionate about turning neuroscience and AI research into translational applications that can assist patients.

French Fellowship 

Kamil Zajkowski 

Kamil is a MS/PhD track student. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science from Columbia University in 2024. He has internship experience as a Test Engineer at Texas Instruments (Summer 2023, 2024). Research interests include electric vehicles, power electronics, and alternative energy resources.

Zong-Han Lin 

Zong-Han Lin is an incoming Ph.D. student in MPLab. He obtained his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, where he achieved first place in his department's undergraduate school. His research portfolio encompasses VSC-HVDC, battery energy storage systems, wind farms, and their utilization in frequency regulation. Before coming to Columbia University, he participated in research projects involving the simulation and analysis of the Taiwan power system and offshore wind farms in the Taiwan Strait. His forthcoming research endeavors will be concentrated on the hardware prototype design for power electronic converters.

Higgins Fellowship 

Shahreer Ahmed Al Hossain 

Shahreer Ahmed Al Hossain is an incoming MS/PhD student in the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia University. He received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from The Cooper Union, New York, in 2024. Previously, Shahreer has participated in summer research experiences at several university labs, including City College of New York’s photonics lab, Columbia University’s semiconductor physics lab, and New York University’s quantum devices lab. His projects have ranged from investigating non-radiative energy transfer between laser dyes to exploring nano-patterned semiconductor structures. At Columbia University, Shahreer will join Professor Mingoo Seok's group to contribute to innovation in the semiconductor industry. His research interests include analog/mixed-signal and digital IC design.

Izzo Family Fellowship

Carson Thielicke Garland 

Carson Garland is a first year Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering in Columbia’s Systems and Networking Lab (SNL). He previously received his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University with cum laude honors. Under the guidance of Professor Ethan Katz-Bassett, Carson’s research will focus on networking systems and internet measurement - hoping to identify and correct performance issues in today’s internet.

NDSEG Fellow 

Kevin Hermstein 

Kevin Hermstein is a second year Ph.D. student in the Wireless and Mobile Networking Lab (WiMNet). He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (Cum Laude) from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2023, where was the recipient of the Presidential, George Corcoran Memorial and Jean M. and Everett L. Dillard scholarships. At Columbia, he was awarded the Evergreen Fellowship in 2023. His research interests are in the field of next-generation wireless networks, including, mmWave Joint Communication and Sensing, Spectrum Sharing, and Full-Duplex Radios. He is advised by Professor Gil Zussman.

Eric Rong

Eric Rong is a second-year PhD student in the Lipson Nanophotonics Group, and received the NDSEG Fellowship. He was a Clark Scholar and SMART Scholar at Johns Hopkins University, where in 2021 he earned a BS and MSE in Electrical Engineering. Before starting at Columbia, he worked as an Electrical Engineer for the US Army DEVCOM C5ISR Center. In Spring 2024, he was awarded the Oscar and Vernon Byron Fellowship from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Now, he is exploring research interests involving nanophotonic devices and systems under the guidance of his advisor, Professor Michal Lipson.

Wei Foundation 

Arthur Dell Yang

Arthur Yang is a first year MS/PhD student in the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia. He graduated in June 2024 from UCLA with a BS in Electrical Engineering. As an undergraduate, he was involved in research in channel coding and communication systems, and worked on projects in analog, digital, and RF IC design. Advised by Professor Ken Shepard, he hopes to continue exploring research interests in analog and digital IC design for biological applications in the Bioelectronics Systems Lab.

GEM Fellow 

Tyndale Brandon

Brandon is an incoming Masters student in the Electrical Engineering Department of Columbia University Fu Foundation  of Engineering and Applied Science. He graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Connecticut, Storrs in May 2022. He conducted research in thermoelectric properties of semiconductor  materials in memory devices. He received the GEM Fellowship from the National Gem Consortium. Brandon has experience from industry as a hardware engineer working in Safety and Compliance for IBM. He was a McNair Scholar as well as apart of LSAMP and NSBE while earning his Bachelor's degree at UCONN. At Columbia University as a Master Student he plans to gain expertise and knowledge within integrated devices and photonics to apply to real world applications within industry hardware .   

Andrade Felipe

Felipe is an incoming Masters student in the Electrical Engineering Department of Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2024 with Cum Laude, conducting research in Geomagnetic field fluctuations/aberrations. He received the GEM Fellowship from the National Gem Consortium and has also been an HSF Scholar and ScholarSHPE recipient. At Columbia, Felipe hopes to gain expertise in integrated circuits and systems to apply at an industry level. 

NSF Fellowship 

Alexander Oh

Alex is an incoming PhD student joining the Lightwave Research Laboratory under Prof. Keren Bergman. He recently received his Bachelors of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Vanderbilt University in 2024 with Summa Cum Laude. His past research primarily focused on device level photonics, and he is excited to continue this research path and expand into circuit and system level design at Columbia. For his research and academic goals, Alex aims to help push the limits of current applications of photonic devices for computation, while also discovering new areas in which photonics can be advantageous.

Provost Diversity Fellowship

Zajkowski Kamil

Kamil is a MS/PhD track student. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science from Columbia University in 2024. He has internship experience as a Test Engineer at Texas Instruments (Summer 2023, 2024). Research interests include electric vehicles, power electronics, and alternative energy resources.

Dean's MS Academic Excellence Fellowship

Marian Abuhazi

Marian Abuhazi is a first-year MS student in Computer Engineering. She graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering from Columbia in May 2024. Marian has completed three successful internships at Microsoft Azure. During her Master’s, Marian hopes to advance her knowledge of computer networking and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to apply to her incoming role as an edge computing engineer.

Amelia Kwak 

Amelia Kwak is an incoming M.S. student in Electrical Engineering. She graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a B.A. in History in May 2024. Amelia has internship experience working on GPS processing and alternative navigation technologies. At Columbia, she will join the Wireless and Mobile Networking Lab to explore her interests in energy and spectrum-efficient communications.

Rachel Ward 

Rachel Ward is a first-year M.S. student studying Electrical Engineering with a focus on integrated circuits and systems and electronics. She graduated May 2024 from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (B.E.E.) and a minor in Leadership. As an undergraduate student her interests were primarily in analog electronics and she participated in research to reduce power consumption of digital devices by translating them into an analog equivalent. At Columbia University, Rachel looks forward to continuing to research and study methods of using analog electronic circuits to reduce and optimize power consumption of digital designs.

Mahsa Amini Fellowship 

Samira Hajizadeh 

Samira Hajizadeh is a first-year graduate student in Electrical Engineering. She recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Tehran, majoring in Electrical Engineering. During her time there, she focused on applying machine learning techniques in the field of healthcare. At Columbia, Samira aims to specialize in Data-Driven Analysis to enhance her understanding of Deep Learning and Generative AI.

We congratulate these outstanding students and wish them continued success in their academic and research endeavors! Their achievements are a testament to the dedication and innovation fostered within Columbia’s Electrical Engineering Department.