Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Hanfei Yu, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Computer Engineering Ph.D. program within Stevens’ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a 2025 MLCommons ML and Systems Rising Star. MLCommons is an artificial intelligence (AI) engineering consortium, built on a philosophy of open collaboration to improve AI systems.

The MLCommons ML and Systems Rising Stars is an initiative designed to identify a cohort of early- to late-stage and recently graduated Ph.D. students, as well as other researchers with a relevant background, to develop community, foster research and career growth, enable collaborations and discuss career opportunities among the rising generation of researchers at intersections of machine learning and systems. This year, the program received more than 150 global applicants, of which only 38 were accepted as part of the 2025 cohort.

Yu’s advisor is Hao Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This honor was awarded to Yu based on his research excellence at the intersection of serverless computing and AI systems. Serverless computing is known as the next-gen computing paradigm that converges HPC and cloud cyberinfrastructures. His work focuses on enhancing the resource efficiency of serverless computing through AI/ML techniques and developing high-performance serverless systems for AI/ML training and inference.

Yu's contributions have earned significant recognition, including the ACM SoCC’24 Best Paper Award and ACM/IEEE SC’24 Best Student Paper Finalist. With 12 publications in top international conferences and journals, he has made a notable impact on the field. Yu’s advisor is Hao Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Mechanical Engineering undergraduate students Adrien Susino, Dominic Souza, Christopher Osowski, and Noah Golan; and Electrical and Computer Engineering undergraduate students Mauricio Sanchez and Jared Surajballi, were selected as finalists for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey 2024-2025 College Challenge for their project on "Vehicular Tunnel Catwalk Robotics."

The team will receive a $10,000 grant to build a working prototype this coming semester and will also get an internship at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) this summer. The project involved designing an unmanned robot to patrol the catwalks in the Lincoln Tunnel as well as other tunnels. These catwalks were once used by manned electric vehicles but were abandoned approximately 20 years ago. PANYNJ wants to repurpose them to better identify adverse conditions or emergencies, allowing for quicker response times.

The team was advised by teaching associate professor Anthony Shupenko, of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering.

Stevens professor and senior research scientist Victor Lawrence, a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty since 2005, has been honored by the White House with the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The medal — which recognizes individuals and organizations for lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness, quality of life and a strengthened technological workforce — was conferred by White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar during a January 3 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

An electrical and computer engineer for more than three decades with Bell Labs, Lawrence's work contributed to the foundations upon which the modern-day internet and mobile technologies were built. His research helped enable the historic global transition from analog communication technologies to faster, more accurate digital communications techniques. He also led Bell Labs teams developing early high-definition television and digital-video technologies.

Lawrence, who holds more than 50 U.S. and international patents, was previously honored in 2023 with a Science & Technology Medal by the Research & Development Council of New Jersey.

Read the full release: https://www.stevens.edu/news/stevens-victor-lawrence-receives-nations-highest-technology-innovation-medal

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering recently conducted its second annual ECE Three-Minute Thesis Competition, with three graduate students earning recognition for their presentation.

Originating in 2010 at the University of Queensland in Australia, The Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT), is an annual competition held at more than 200 universities worldwide. Competitors present their research in just 180 seconds, ideally in a way that can be understood by an intelligent audience with no background in the research area.

The winners of Stevens’ 2024 competition are: Sunil Gupta, first place; Nandan Hemanth, second place; and Zexin Liu, third place.

Gupta was advised by teaching assistant professor Md Abu Sayeed for their topic titled “Seizure detection using secured communication Networks.” Hemanth’s runner-up presentation was titled “Blabber - Call Translator with Voice Cloning” and they were advised by lecturer Joseph Helsing. Liu was advised by professor and Anson Wood Burchard Chair professor Lei Wu for their presentation “Equity-oriented power system planning and operation.”