Faculty

Al Bovik receives JJ Thomson Medal from UK’s Institution of Engineering and Technology

Charles Ferrer — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:40:12 +0000

Al Bovik receives JJ Thomson Medal from UK’s Institution of Engineering and Technology Charles Ferrer Tue, 10/20/2026 - 13:40

Air Commodore Emily Flynn (left), Chair of the Achievement Medal Panel, presenting the JJ Thomson Medal to Bovik (right). Photo Credit: Institution of Engineering and Technology

Charles Ferrer

Air Commodore Emily Flynn (left), Chair of the Achievement Medal Panel, presenting the JJ Thomson Medal to Bovik (right). Photo Credit: Institution of Engineering and Technology

Professor Al Bovik was awarded the JJ Thomson Medal from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for pioneering the use of visual neuroscience to create systems that control the quality of much of the world’s streaming video, television and social media content.

His inventions have transformed the way image and video quality is measured and managed across digital platforms used by billions of people worldwide.

“Winning the JJ Thomson Medal is wonderful and thrilling,” Bovik said. “Thomson was an amazing mentor. Seven of his students went on to win Nobel Prizes. To me, this is most admirable, since I view myself primarily as an educator. Like any good educator, I have learned more from my students than they from I, a sentiment I am sure the great Thomson would agree with.”

J.J. Thomson was an English physicist who helped revolutionize the understanding of atomic structure through his discovery of the electron, for which he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906.

Bovik, professor of electrical and computer engineering, accepted the medal at the IET Achievement Awards Ceremony in London on October 16. The ceremony recognized pioneers in engineering and technology from all over the world for their innovations and contributions in artificial intelligence, manufacturing sustainability, digital media technology, renewable energy and space communications.

“We are proud to celebrate these outstanding individuals and their impact through our Achievement Awards. These awards recognise the engineers and technologists whose ideas, leadership and innovation are helping shape the future,” said IET President Sam Hubbard. “This year’s winners demonstrate the extraordinary impact engineering has on society and the here and now.”

Bovik said the work that has shaped his research career grew out of curiosity.

“The work that my students and I have accomplished rose from our pure research interests, and it is almost serendipitous that it has had such an impact on people’s lives,” he said.

That impact, he explained, can be measured in significant reduction of internet bandwidth consumption, more than 70% of which is occupied by pictures and videos. The savings improve efficiency and lessen the Internet’s impact on the global carbon footprint, whether it be on television, streaming, social media, photography or video.

The approach behind it all, Bovik said, was applying neuroscience-based models of the human visual brain to understand how humans perceive distortions and low visual quality media.

“We are using AI methods to improve the quality and efficiency of the billions of user-generated videos that are uploaded and shared every day.”

At the Colorado Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering at �鶹��ý, Bovik and his students are bridging disciplines to solve problems related to assessing and improving the appearances of human avatars in future headset-based visual communication, such as Meta glasses.

“I hope our work will inspire other engineers and computer scientists to cross disciplines to expand their learning to solve problems that lie between different branches of science. In our case, this has required my students and I to become neuroscientists and psychophysicists as well as video engineers. These are where many of our most pressing problems lie.”

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Meet Assistant Teaching Professor Niyem Bawana

Charles Ferrer — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:20:27 +0000

Meet Assistant Teaching Professor Niyem Bawana Charles Ferrer Fri, 08/21/2026 - 11:20

Bio: Niyem Mawenbe Bawana is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. He earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Lomé in 2008, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in 2019, and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in robotics from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 2021.

Before joining �鶹��ý, Niyem taught high school physics and chemistry for nearly a decade. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the University of South Florida from 2017 to 2019. His experiences as both an educator and an engineer have shaped his commitment to making complex technical concepts accessible and connecting classroom learning to meaningful engineering problems.

He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2026. His dissertation, Deep Learning for Terahertz Damage Characterization in Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Laminates: From Detection to Quantification, explored how machine learning and terahertz sensing can be combined to detect, locate, and characterize subsurface damage in composite materials.

Research: His research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning, digital systems, computer architecture, and nondestructive evaluation. He is particularly interested in computationally efficient methods that transform inspection signals into reliable information about the condition of materials and structures. His broader research vision includes machine-learning and emerging computing architectures for intelligent sensing and safer engineered systems.

What excites me most about joining ECEE is the opportunity to become part of a collaborative department whose expertise spans areas ranging from quantum engineering and photonics to circuits, embedded systems, and computer architecture. This breadth creates an especially rich environment for teaching, collaboration, and the development of new ideas across traditional disciplinary boundaries.

I am particularly excited to contribute to the teaching of digital systems, embedded computing, and computer architecture. These subjects form the bridge between abstract computational ideas and the physical systems that students can design, build, and test. I look forward to helping students understand that connection through engaging instruction, hands-on projects, and engineering problems grounded in real-world applications.

�鶹��ý’s continued investment in its undergraduate computer engineering curriculum also strongly aligns with my experience and goals as an educator. I am eager to contribute to that effort by helping strengthen course connections, expand experiential learning opportunities, and prepare students to participate in the innovative research taking place across ECEE. More broadly, I am excited to bring together my background in teaching, machine learning, sensing, and digital systems to support students and contribute meaningfully to the department’s educational mission.

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Meet Assistant Professor Cheng Wang

Charles Ferrer — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:14:57 +0000

Meet Assistant Professor Cheng Wang Charles Ferrer Fri, 08/21/2026 - 11:14

Bio: Cheng Wang is an incoming Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer and Energy Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and an affiliated professor at Iowa State University.

Prior to joining �鶹��ý, Cheng was an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University from 2022 to 2026. He was a Research Scientist at the Center for Brain-inspired Computing Enabling (C-BRIC) at Purdue University from 2019 to 2022, and worked in the industry as a Staff R&D Engineer at Seagate Research Center from 2016 to 2019.

He has served on the Technical Program Committee for beyond-CMOS and emerging technologies for IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC), International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), and Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, Seagate FRC Technical Award, NSF Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Award, and Best Paper awards for the IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing (ICRC) and IEEE Cross-disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric Computing.

Cheng received his B.S. degree in Physics from Peking University in 2009 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016, with his dissertation on emerging non-volatile and spintronic memories.

Cheng is also affiliated with the Renewable And Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), a joint research institute between �鶹��ý and the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

Research: His current research interests include machine learning hardware acceleration and energy-efficient neuromorphic computing with emerging technologies and architectures.

I am excited to join the highly reputed and dynamic faculty at ECEE with deep expertise across a wide spectrum, from quantum electronics/photonics to circuits and systems. I particularly look forward to contributing to the computer system research at ECEE with my cross-disciplinary exploration of next-generation AI hardware.

I also found that my background and research vision are nicely aligned with the recent endeavor of �鶹��ý in building the ecosystem to develop quantum science and technology. Quantum science may be well positioned to provide the underlying technology for addressing the challenge ofcomputer efficiency. I am also excited about the outdoor experiences around �鶹��ý.

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Assistant Professor Jensen recognized as exceptional mentor 2026

Charles Ferrer — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:22:10 +0000

Assistant Professor Jensen recognized as exceptional mentor 2026 Charles Ferrer Mon, 03/30/2026 - 08:22

Assistant Professor Emily Jensen was recognized with the Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award by the Graduate School at �鶹��ý.

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Erickson, Anderson elected to National Academy of Engineering

Charles Ferrer — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 22:20:07 +0000

Erickson, Anderson elected to National Academy of Engineering Charles Ferrer Fri, 02/13/2026 - 15:20

Dana Anderson and Bob Erickson are among the 130 scientists and engineers from around the country who will be inducted as members of the NAE at a meeting this fall.

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ECEE welcomes new faculty for spring 2026

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 15:43:41 +0000

ECEE welcomes new faculty for spring 2026 Charles Ferrer Wed, 01/07/2026 - 08:43

Logan Horowitz (left), Gonzalo Constante Flores (right)

Charles Ferrer

ECEE at �鶹��ý is welcoming three new faculty members including Assistant Professor Logan Horowitz and and Assistant Professor Gonzalo Constante Flores. Additionally, award-winning physicist Matt Eichenfield, the inaugural Karl Gustafson Endowed Chair of Quantum Engineering, joined this semester.

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Diddams inducted into National Academy of Engineering

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:09:21 +0000

Diddams inducted into National Academy of Engineering Charles Ferrer Wed, 10/15/2025 - 09:09

Diddams was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering at their annual meeting on Oct. 5 in Washington, DC.

Charles Ferrer

Diddams was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering at their annual meeting on Oct. 5 in Washington, DC.

Scott Diddams, professor and Robert H. Davis Endowed Chair in Discovery Learning, was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions granted to engineers in academia and industry.

Diddams, based in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and the Department of Physics, was recognized for his outstanding contributions in optical frequency combs and their applications. He joins 128 new U.S. members and 21 international members to the Class of 2025.

“Each day when I get up, I feel fortunate that my job allows me to be curious, attempt to solve hard problems and work with students and motivated people doing the same,” Diddams said. “I am truly humbled by this honor.”

Diddams carries out experimental research in the fields of precision spectroscopy and quantum metrology, nonlinear optics, microwave photonics and ultrafast lasers.

One of his current projects is a collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that aims to use an optical atomic clock, to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity atop Mt. Blue Sky. This endeavor marks one of the first efforts to take ultra-precise quantum technology out of the lab and into the natural environment, opening new opportunities for navigation, geosciences and timekeeping.

I am most grateful to the students, postdocs, colleagues and mentors who have made me a better scientist, engineer and person. I am also thankful to my family for their personal support in many unseen ways.

Diddams received his PhD degree from the University of New Mexico in 1996 and completed his postdoctoral work at JILA. He also spent time as a research physicist, group leader and fellow at NIST. As a postdoc, Diddams built the first optical frequency combs in the lab of �鶹��ý Nobel Laureate John Hall. Throughout his career, he has pioneered the use of these powerful tools for optical clocks, tests of fundamental physics, novel spectroscopy and astronomy.

In 2022, he joined the �鶹��ý faculty, where he also assumed the role of faculty director of the Quantum Engineering Initiative in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

His work has resulted in more than 750 peer-reviewed publications, conference papers, and invited talks, and has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold and Silver Medals, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) and the C.E.K. Mees Medal. Diddams is also a Fellow of OPTICA, IEEE and the American Physical Society.

“As a member of the NAE, it is my hope to give back to the community and country that has provided me with so much as a scientist and engineer.”

Scott Diddams was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering Class of 2025 for his outstanding contributions in optical frequency combs and their applications.

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New open-source software allows for efficient 3D printing with multiple materials

Charles Ferrer — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 14:46:52 +0000

New open-source software allows for efficient 3D printing with multiple materials Charles Ferrer Tue, 10/14/2025 - 08:46

Researchers have created an open-source design system software package that uses functions and code to map not just shapes, but where different materials belong in a 3D object. The project, called OpenVCAD, has the potential to transform 3D printing by enabling engineers to design multi-material objects smarter and more efficiently.

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Matt Eichenfield named inaugural Karl Gustafson Endowed Chair of Quantum Engineering

Charles Ferrer — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 21:17:12 +0000

Matt Eichenfield named inaugural Karl Gustafson Endowed Chair of Quantum Engineering Charles Ferrer Thu, 09/25/2025 - 15:17

Charles Ferrer

Award-winning physicist Matt Eichenfield has been named the inaugural Karl Gustafson Endowed Chair of Quantum Engineering in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at �鶹��ý.

A recognized leader in ultra-scalable photonics, nano-optomechanics and phononics, Eichenfield’s career spans academia and government. He is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of quantum science and technology, as well as classical optical and RF systems.

“�鶹��ý is where you can assemble a team of the world’s leading experts across physics, engineering and beyond to go after really audacious goals in quantum,” Eichenfield said. “The quantum ecosystem at �鶹��ý and Colorado is unmatched, and I’m excited to collaborate with researchers and companies who are already leading the way in quantum technologies that will impact the world.”

The endowed chair honors the career of Professor Emeritus Karl Gustafson, whose belief in multidisciplinary research anticipated the kinds of breakthroughs that now define quantum engineering.

“The Karl Gustafson Endowed Chair represents both a legacy and a vision to tackle the world’s most complex challenges,” said Keith Molenaar, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science. “Matt Eichenfield is an extraordinary scholar and mentor who will further strengthen our leadership in quantum engineering, and we are thrilled to welcome him to CU Engineering.”

Eichenfield most recently worked at the University of Arizona’s Wyant College of Optical Sciences, where he held the International Society for Optics and Photonics Endowed Chair and was the co-director of the Center for Quantum Networks — a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.

He holds a joint appointment at Sandia National Laboratories, recognizing his research and leadership at a federal lab whose mission includes state-of-the-art solutions for national security. At Sandia, he founded and led the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems–Enabled Quantum Systems group, pioneering approaches that combine advanced micro- and nano-fabrication with quantum engineering. His work has enabled devices that push the boundaries of both classical and quantum technologies.

This perspective, working within national lab facilities while mentoring students, remains central to his vision for �鶹��ý.

“My experience in fabricating myriad nanotechnologies for classical and quantum applications gives me a unique perspective on how to engineer leading quantum systems,” he said. “I’m excited to share this with undergraduate and graduate students, teaching them how to build quantum devices and preparing them to go into the quantum industry.”

Quantum Nanophoxonics Laboratory led by Eichenfield.

Shaping the next generation of quantum scientists

Eichenfield emphasizes giving students access to the real-world challenges and partnerships that define the fast-growing quantum sector.

“Coming to �鶹��ý means you’ll get to work with world-class faculty, along with companies revolutionizing quantum computing,” Eichenfield said. “My research group also gets to work alongside Sandia scientists who are pursuing quantum solutions vital to the U.S. economy and national security.”

His advice to students is simple but bold: Seek out the hardest problems.

“You should work on the most challenging engineering or scientific challenges you can find,” he said. “Those are the most exciting and rewarding problems to tackle and because of that they draw the best and the brightest who have to leverage the very limits of science and engineering to solve those problems. There’s no more difficult and exciting field right now than quantum computing and quantum sensing.”

A career shaped by discovery

Eichenfield’s path into physics and quantum engineering began in high school, where an inspiring physics teacher sparked his interest in science. As an undergraduate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, he immersed himself in laboratory work, eventually joining the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory project at the California Institute of Technology as a summer and then year-round intern.

He stayed on at Caltech for graduate school in physics, where he studied nanoscale photonic and phononic systems. His work centered on building devices sensitive enough to detect the tiniest possible vibrations allowed by quantum mechanics.

He explains the concept with a tuning fork analogy: Strike it and you hear vibrations. Strike it softer and softer and eventually the sound disappears. But quantum mechanics tells us that even when no energy is added, a tiny motion still remains — quantum ground-state fluctuations.

“The devices I built for my PhD were the first that could actually detect those ground-state fluctuations,” Eichenfield said. “It was both my intro to quantum science and a lesson in how engineering at the nanoscale can reveal phenomena that nothing else has ever been able to observe.”

After completing his PhD, he became the first Kavli Nanoscience Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech before joining Sandia as a Harry S. Truman Fellow.

Eichenfield — who holds 22 patents — continues to build on research and innovation. His group is developing piezoelectric optomechanical photonic circuits for quantum computers that use ions and neutral atoms as qubits, as well as novel infrared detectors with applications in spectroscopy, imaging and sensing.

Quantum’s global future

�鶹��ý is leading a first-of-its-kind National Quantum Nanofab (NQN) facility that will provide researchers from universities, government and industry with the tools to fabricate and test innovative quantum devices. Eichenfield hopes to forge those collaborations through the NQN.

"Our legacy in scientific leadership has driven global progress in quantum science for decades,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation. “With initiatives like our CUbit Quantum Initiative and the Colorado Quantum Incubator, �鶹��ý is at the forefront of the development of quantum technologies, through the advances of our own faculty, as well as increased collaboration with the regional and national quantum communities. The promise of quantum technologies is going to be realized in the foreseeable future."

Eichenfield points to the so-called traveling salesman problem and other optimization problems, such as airline scheduling, global shipping logistics and supply chain management, that quantum computers could solve exponentially faster than classical computers. Quantum computing also can innovate new drug discovery, enabling researchers to simulate molecular interactions at a level of complexity that classical computers cannot achieve.

“Quantum computing will impact the lives of everyone on the planet in ways we can’t even imagine yet,” Eichenfield said. “Society has a lot to gain, and �鶹��ý is at the forefront of making that future possible.”

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Tamara Lehman receives CAREER award to strengthen hardware security

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:40:09 +0000

Tamara Lehman receives CAREER award to strengthen hardware security Charles Ferrer Wed, 03/12/2025 - 14:40

Lehman lands the 2025 CAREER award through the National Science Foundation to advance computer architecture security.

Charles Ferrer

Lehman lands the 2025 CAREER award through the National Science Foundation to advance computer architecture security.

Computers are faster than ever—but at what cost? Speed and performance have long been prioritized over security in hardware design, leaving modern systems vulnerable to attacks.

Assistant Professor Tamara Lehman, from �鶹��ý’s Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, is working to address these vulnerabilities in microarchitecture designs while exploring security metrics for future hardware designs.

Lehman recently received a prestigious $615,000, five-year National Science Foundation CAREER Award to advance computer architecture security.

Addressing security gaps in hardware design

Microarchitectural security is the defense mechanisms that can be added at microarchitectural design time.

“Microarchitectural security has been in the back seat for a long time. For years, we’ve focused on making computers faster without fully considering what that means for security,” Lehman said. “That’s why we’re now dealing with systems that are high-performing but often lack security guarantees.”

Microarchitectural design is the functional level design of the hardware; one level above logic gates and one level below the operating system. It is the implementation of the software interface using the hardware constructs.

Since the 2018 disclosure of the Spectre and Meltdown attacks—security vulnerabilities affecting modern processors—industry and academia have faced increasing pressure to address hardware security risks. However, the lack of standardized metrics for assessing microarchitectural security makes it difficult to compare designs and implement effective safeguards.

Lehman’s research aims to bridge this gap by integrating security metrics directly into the hardware design process.

Lehman working with PhD student, Zach Moolman, in her lab.

Evaluating microarchitectural vulnerabilities

The first phase of the project focuses on caches—critical memory structures that are among the most vulnerable components in modern processors.

Lehman and her PhD students will define security metrics for caches and integrate them into commonly used processor simulators, ensuring these tools become widely available to both researchers and industry professionals. She hopes to propose a novel approach to quantify hardware security risks.

“Right now, companies in industry make trade-offs between performance and security with little concrete data about the security guarantees afforded by defense mechanisms,” she said. “My goal is to develop standardized security metrics that allow designers to measure and compare the security of different microarchitectural components in parallel to performance.”

Once they can prove those security metrics provide a meaningful assessment of security risks, they can expand the framework to other parts of the processor microarchitecture, she said.

Real-world implications: strengthening critical infrastructure

Lehman’s research has significant implications for global cybersecurity.

“We rely on computing devices for everything from banking to autonomous vehicles,” she said. “If a microarchitectural attack compromises the hardware running an autonomous driving system, lives could be at risk.”

Beyond personal and commercial computing, her research could help protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, such as power grid systems and banking systems.

Lehman noted how the 2021 Colonial Pipeline cyberattack disrupted oil supply chains across the United States and a prime example of how vulnerabilities in computing systems can have far-reaching consequences.

Bringing security for hardware designs

Ultimately, Lehman’s research aims to shift the conversation from viewing security as a trade-off to seeing it as a fundamental design requirement.

“There are no standardized security metrics for hardware or for software,” she said. “We hope to establish widely accepted security evaluation methods that can be integrated into both research and industry design practices.”

“I want to move us toward a more concrete, data-driven approach where security is as quantifiable as performance in hardware design,” Lehman said.

Tamara Lehman, assistant professor of computer engineering, has earned a CAREER award through the National Science Foundation to address hardware vulnerabilities in microarchitecture designs while exploring security metrics for future hardware designs.

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