- Three UF ECE doctoral students earned prestigious national honors for research, leadership and academic excellence.
- Their work in AI, photonics and advanced computing has led to patents, publications and award-winning research.
- The students are members of Associate Professor Hamed Dalir’s CHIP Lab, advancing technologies with real-world impact.
Three doctoral students from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, or ECE, have earned significant honors, from leadership to scholarship to research.
Abdolah Amirany won two IEEE Best Paper awards for the same paper. He received the Armen H. Zemanian Best Paper Award and the M.N.S. Swamy Best Paper Award for his work in the journal “Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing.” Benjamin Hayden received the prestigious SMART Scholarship from the U.S. Department of War to support his doctoral studies. Both are also part of Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) Scholarship Program, which funds undergraduate and graduate students working on applied research projects relevant to the U.S. Navy.
Meanwhile, Belal Jahannia was selected as one of the Top 100 Future Leaders at Frontiers in Optics.
All three are students of ECE Associate Professor Hamed Dalir, Ph.D., director of University of Florida’s CHIP Lab.
“Our students are the heart of innovation,” Dalir said. “In just three years, their ideas and hard work have helped drive more than 20 patent filings, turning lab discoveries into real-world impact. Abdolah, Belal and Benjamin represent the best of that spirit: talented, driven and committed to building technologies that can serve society.”
Amirany is an ECE researcher and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, known as IEEE, and the Association for Computing Machinery. His research focuses on emerging hardware technologies for energy-efficient computing, including neuromorphic computing, photonic and spintronic devices, stochastic and approximate computing, non-volatile memories and AI hardware accelerators.
He plans to continue developing next-generation computing platforms that enable faster, more compact and more energy-efficient artificial intelligence and sensing systems with meaningful real-world impacts.
“For me,” he said, “the value of this award goes beyond the recognition itself; it reflects our effort to develop research that can have even a small, positive impact on people’s lives. This has always been, and will continue to be, one of my main goals: contribute to work that helps make people’s lives better.”
Jahannia’s research focuses on developing next-generation photonic computing architectures for artificial intelligence applications. Longterm, he wants to build large-scale photonic systems that can power future AI demands. He said his work has resulted in over 30 publications and several patents in photonic accelerator architectures.
He has served as president of UF’s OPTICA and SPIE student chapters. He is a mentor to undergraduates, creating hands-on learning opportunities.
“At this early stage of my career, being recognized alongside and connected with top leaders who are actively shaping the future of photonics is something I do not take lightly,” Jahannia said. “I have seen how experiences like this serve as a foundation for the careers of researchers and professors I admire, and I hope this marks a similarly meaningful starting point for me. It is a reminder that the work we do as students, in the lab and in our communities, truly matters.”
Hayden graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and will begin his Ph.D. work this fall in integrated photonic and quantum applications.
“I joined Professor Dalir’s research a year ago, and I’ve so far developed three patents, co-authored multiple papers and managed five projects, from classic integrated photonics/electronics to quantum applications,” Hayden said.
He plans to continue advancing photonic/quantum applications.
“Overall, I have a passion for everything photonic and quantum,” Hayden said. “Winning this award is an amazing opportunity because it not only pays for my school but gives me stipends to pay living expenses and offers a career at a research base after graduation. I’m very thankful for the support from the scholarship.”