ECE Announces 2026 Annual Awards with Ceremony and Reception

Sep 11, 2026 2 min read

On Tuesday, September 8th, the ECE Department held its annual Fall Awards Ceremony and Reception. Awards were presented to students, staff and faculty by ECE Chair Sennur Ulukus. The following awards were presented:

  • The George Corcoran Memorial Award for Faculty, presented annually to a young faculty member who has shown exemplary contributions to teaching and educations leadership: Professor Zhambyl Shaikhanov

  • Jimmy H.C. Lin Award for Innovation and Invention awarded annually to a faculty member who has transformed their ideas into innovations through invention and technology commercialization: Professor Cheng Gong for his patent, “Energy Efficient Ferroelectric Device and Method for Making the Same”

  • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Staff Service Award in recognition of a staff member for outstanding service to faculty, staff and students: Paris Christian, Coordinator, Chair’s Office

  • The David Bader Graduate Student Service Award in recognition of exceptional service to the department: Irem Didin

  • George Corcoran Memorial Award for a Graduate Student presented to a graduate teaching assistant in recognition of excellence in teaching: Chidiebere Udenze

  • The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Dissertation Award, in recognition of recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. This year’s recipients are:

    • Sagnik Bhattacharya, advised by Professor Prakash Narayan
      Dissertation: Global computation from local information: classical and quantum
    • Shanchuan Liang, advised by Professor Cheng Gong
      Dissertation: Magnetoelectric Effects in Two-Dimensional Multiferroic Heterostructures
    • Sahan Liyanaarachchi, advised by Professor Sennur Ulukus
      Dissertation: Freshness-Based Remote Estimation and Control
    • Sydney Overton, advised by Professor Reza Ghodssi
      Dissertation: An Ingestible Capsule for Gastrointestinal Serotonin Sensing to Investigate the Gut-Brain Axis
    • Supratik Sarkar, advised by Professor Mohammad Hafezi
      Dissertation: Intersection of many-body physics and photonics: 2D semiconductors and PICs

https://ece.umd.edu/news/story/ece-announces-2026-annual-awards-with-ceremony-and-reception

David A. Bader
David A. Bader
Distinguished Professor, Associate Dean for Research, and Director of the Institute for Data Science

David A. Bader is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Data Science and Associate Dean for Research in the Ying Wu College of Computing at New Jersey Institute of Technology.