First Ohio State student wins prestigious ISSCC award

For the first time, a student from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at The Ohio State University has won a prestigious award for his research in solid-state circuits technology.

ECE student Jack Hsueh recently received the Analog Devices (ADI) Outstanding Student Designer Award at the 2018 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.

The event is the flagship gathering of scientists presenting cutting-edge research in circuit design.

Solid-state electronic devices are part of every day technology, from radios and amplifiers, to LED computer monitors and TV remote controls. Solid-state devices, such as a transistor, use conductors to control the flow of signals through a circuit. In digital circuits, an integrated circuit chip is a collection of transistors and wires that hook them together.

Hsueh’s faculty advisor, ECE Assistant Professor Vanessa Chen, said the award is prestigious and marks the first time Ohio State research was highlighted among the winners.

“Past winners were from schools like MIT, Berkeley and Stanford,” said Chen. “Having Ohio State on the map is phenomenal.”

Chen said the award is given to highlight excellence in integrated circuit design, and is initiated by the director of the High-Speed Data Converter group and the director of the University Program at ADI.

“Through this award, we hope to engage more closely with ADI on research in the area of data converters and start building a strong link,” said Chen.

Hsueh received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from National Cheng Kung University and National Taiwan University, Taiwan, in 2010 and 2013, respectively. He received his master's degree in ECE from Ohio State in 2017. He is currently working toward a doctoral degree at Ohio State where his research is focused on bio-inspired computing with next-generation massive storage.

From 2011 to 2014, Hsueh was a research assistant, designing beamforming analog front-end circuits. As a PhD student, he develops energy-efficient architectures and algorithms for high-speed ADCs.

by Ryan Horns, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering