2023 ECE Annual Award Winners
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern Engineering recognized 14 students and faculty during its annual awards ceremony on June 1.
“It is always great to recognize the many achievements of our students and faculty,” said Randall Berry, John A. Dever Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering. “My thanks to our awards committee for organizing this event.”
Outstanding Graduating Electrical Engineering Senior Awards
Theerut Amornkasemwong (’23) and Haolan Zhan (’23) both received Outstanding Graduating Electrical Engineering Senior awards.
Amornkasemwong, currently a software engineer at Netflix, earned dual bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern Engineering and a certificate in financial economics from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. His research interests include the Internet of Things, embedded systems, and scalable software architectures.
An incoming firmware engineer at Keysight Technologies, Zhan earned dual bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and electrical engineering and a minor in computer science at Northwestern Engineering. His research interests include embedded systems and firmware engineering, microprocessor system design, circuits and electronics, Internet of Things, and computer hardware.
Outstanding Graduating Computer Engineering Senior Awards
Slobodanka (Danche) Smilkova (’23) and Ruiqi Xu (’23) each received an Outstanding Graduating Computer Engineering Senior award.
Smilkova earned a combined master’s and bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a minor in engineering management at Northwestern Engineering. A David United World College Scholar, Smilkova specialized in embedded systems and served as a research assistant with Northwestern University’s Simpson Querrey Institute and the Ka Moamoa Research Lab, led by Josiah Hester, adjunct associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and of computer science at Northwestern Engineering.
Xu earned a combined master’s degree in computer engineering and dual bachelor’s degrees in computer science and computer engineering at Northwestern Engineering. He co-authored a paper selected for oral presentation at the International Conference on Learning Representations 2022. Xu was a member of the Prescience Lab, led by Peter Dinda, professor of computer science and (by courtesy) electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern Engineering.
Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards
Thomas Douglas (’23), James Liu, Michael Richards, Chris Uustal (’23) all earned Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher awards
Douglas earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Northwestern Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. A 2022 Barry Goldwater Scholarship winner, Douglas was nominated for the award by his adviser Matthew Grayson, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Douglas was co-first author of a paper on the design of a new class of solid-state refrigerator that uses electrons to cool samples from cryogenic temperatures around 100 mK to ultracold cryogenic temperatures.
Liu is pursuing a combined MS/BS in in electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern engineering. Advised by Ermin Wei, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and of industrial engineering and management sciences, Liu’s research interests include modeling optimal shepherding behaviors for robot teams using DeepQ reinforcement learning.
“In one quarter, James went from new to the field to someone who is at the state-of-the-art,” Wei said.
Richards is pursuing a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering at Northwestern Engineering. A member of the Center for Quantum Devices (CQD), he is advised by Manijeh Razeghi, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Richards began working at the CQD in October 2021 to explore his research interests in semiconductor materials and devices and photonics — the generation, detection, and manipulation of light waves — related to the creation of semiconductor-based photodiodes (PDs) to detect light in the ultraviolet region.
“Michael’s research has already yielded an impressive and thorough undergraduate research project and has contributed to a paper currently pending for publication,” Razeghi said. “I feel very strongly that Michael’s passion for photonics and the results of his research make him an excellent candidate for this award.”
Uustal earned a combined master’s degree in electrical engineering and bachelor’s degree in computing engineering at Northwestern Engineering. An incoming systems integration engineer at Tesla, Uustal was a member of the Northwestern Formula Racing team, most recently as the chief electrical engineer.
“Throughout his time at Northwestern, Chris has shown his talent in embedded systems time after time,” said Ilya Mikhelson, associate professor of instruction at Northwestern Engineering. “I think there is no one more deserving of recognition in our department.”
Best Teaching Assistant Award
Lakshay Gautam, a PhD student in electrical engineering in CQD advised by Razeghi, received the Best Teaching Assistant award.
“Lakshay singlehandedly worked to make the lab components for the classes an enjoyable experience for us students,” a nominator said. “Lakshay's enthusiasm and passion for the content of the courses and labs he helped out with inevitably rubbed off on the students around him.”
The recipient of a 2021 Walter P. Murphy Fellowship, Gautam’s research focuses on wide bandgap III-nitrides and III-oxides for the development of ultraviolet avalanche photodetectors, focal plane arrays, and transistors.
Best Electrical Engineering PhD Thesis Award
Sina Abedini Dereshgi (PhD ’23) earned the Best Electrical Engineering PhD Thesis award for “Anisotropic van der Waals Materials for Polarization-Sensitive Photonics.” He was advised by Koray Aydin, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern Engineering.
Best Computer Engineering PhD Thesis Award
Xiangguo Liu (PhD ’23) received the Best Computer Engineering PhD Thesis Award for “Safe and Secure Design of Connected Safe and Secure Design of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.” Liu’s research interests center around the areas of optimization, control and learning theories, and applications of connected and automated vehicle 
and cyber-physical systems. Liu was advised by Qi Zhu, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and (by courtesy) computer science at Northwestern Engineering.
Allen Taflove Best Teacher Award
Russell Joseph, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and of computer science at Northwestern Engineering, earned the Allen Taflove Best Teacher Award. Student nominations highlighted Joseph’s willingness to serve as a substitute professor for the computer engineering capstone project course.
“Professor Russ stepped in not only for my class, but for all of the other classes that did not have a substitute professor, and he did a really great job,” a nominator said. “The project turned out better than anyone had expected, and I looked forward to each class. He made the class environment very welcoming. I was impressed with how well Professor Russ was able to adapt and take control of the situation.”
Additional award winners
Winners of external, non-departmental awards were also recognized during the ceremony:
Julian Gamboa González was awarded a Northwestern University Presidential Fellowship.
Ibrahim Tanriover has been awarded a 2023 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics