ECE Student presenting his research to ECE faculty, Antonio Ortega. (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
The 15th MHI Research Festival returned to campus as student researchers, faculty, alumni, and industry partners gathered to celebrate research at USC’s Epstein Family Plaza last Friday.
This year, the festival featured live demonstrations, a lab tour, poster presentation sessions, and an award ceremony recognizing poster winners and the 2025 MHI Scholars, who were selected by the institute’s board of directors to serve as student ambassadors for the department’s research initiatives.
MHI Director, Shrikanth Narayanan (left), USC Interim President, Beong-Soo Kim (center left), Ming Hsieh (center right), and USC ECE Department Chair, Richard Leahy (right). (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
Joined by the department’s namesake, Ming Hsieh, and USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim, the festival was hosted by the Ming Hsieh Institute (MHI) and led by MHI Director Shrikanth Narayanan, Co-directors Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Hossein Hashemi.
“We are in the center of this technology revolution,” emphasized Ming during his speech at the award ceremony. He highlighted ECE’s irreplaceable role in powering the nation’s latest innovations and the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence (AI), noting that the research presented at this year’s festival is a testament to that.
Echoing Ming’s remarks, President Kim recognized ECE students’ research in AI as a key contributor to USC’s expanding AI initiatives during an interview at the ceremony.
The festival also welcomed sponsors Qualcomm and Marvell Semiconductor Inc., along with industry partners Enlighten Care, Oracle, MaxLinear Inc., Disney Research Imagineering, Samsung, Olli Health, PsiQuantum, RFA Electric, NXP Semiconductors, Cisco and Amazon.
MHI Celebrated Student Research With 120+ Student Papers Presented
As the cradle for the next generation of researchers and the institute’s core mission, MHI celebrated students’ lab work from the past year. Poster presentations took center stage, as the festival kicked off with morning and afternoon sessions where student researchers and their labs showcased the latest findings. This year, students from more than 10 labs across the department participated in the poster sessions.
The panel of judges, consisting of faculty, industry partners and senior PhD students, selected two undergraduate winners, one master’s winner and 11 PhD winners out of a total of 126 presenters, who were recognized at the award ceremony.
Ming Hsieh Institute (MHI) Director Shrikanth Narayanan and MHI Co-director Bhaskar Krishnamachari discussed a student researcher’s findings. (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
Live Demos, Lab Tours and Networking Opportunities Fostered Research Community
Beyond being a place to present research, the event is also about building a strong research community. The annual festival is designed to create an interactive space for passionate researchers to connect and exchange ideas, opening opportunities for collaboration on future work.
MHI Scholar and ECE Student, Ana Sanson Leon, performing a demo from her research to Ming Hsieh. (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
As part of the demo stations, researchers from various labs, performed demonstrations of their designs to guests. Michella Rustom from USC’s ACME Lab, for example, demonstrated her wireless motion tracker with a 3D-printed arm. Student organizations such as USC Makers also participated by showcasing past projects. USC Makers president, Jacob Rojit, presented Dance Cam, a movement-tracking camera designed to keep dancers in frame while they record their performances.
MHI Director, Shrikanth Narayanan (left), USC ECE Vice Chair, Michelle Povinelli (center), and USC ECE Department Chair, Richard Leahy (right).
In the afternoon, guests had the exclusive opportunity to tour the RoboLAND Lab led by Feifei Qian,
an Assistant Professor at USC ECE. Her students presented a live demonstration of Spirit, a quadrupedal robot capable of traversing various terrains. Spirit is part of Qian’s NASA-funded Mars initiative, the LASSIE (Legged Autonomous Surface Science In Analogue Environments) Project, aims to develop next-generation legged robots for planetary exploration. The festival also provided valuable opportunities for networking, as students connected with industry partners and senior students offered mentorship to their peers.
Student leaders from USC Makers holding products from past projects (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
An Extra Festive, Spooky Research Festival
As this year’s festival fell on Halloween, students and faculty extended their creativity beyond their lab work. From Crayola Crayon and Winnie the Pooh to “a formal apology,” participants presented their research in costume, making the 15th research festival extra festive.
The research festival also kicked off the department’s first-ever costume contest, with voting still live on Instagram. The winner with the most votes will be announced on Nov. 7. The best costume winner will receive a limited-edition ECE disposable camera—cast your vote by commenting your favorite costume on this post.
MHI Business Officer, Cathy Huang, and USC ECE PhD Student dressed up in Halloween Costumes. (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
Full List of Best Poster Winners
PhD Student Poster Winners
- Ray Sun — Ultrafast Electromagnetic Inverse Design
ECE Phd student from USC SAIL Lab presenting research in a Halloween costume (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
- Mohamed Elsawaf, Ray Sun — Space needs: A table to put a laptop and a power outlet
- Anik Sengupta — Compact Wearable Stethoscope for Wheezing Detection Using Resonant Microphone Array
- Prakash Kumar — Low-Latency Real-Time 3D MRI for Guiding Cardiovascular Interventions
- Woojae Jeong — Time-Resolved EEG Decoding of Semantic Processing Reveals Altered Neural Dynamics in Depression and Suicidality
- Michella Rustom — Magnetic Induction-Based Localization: From Smart Pills to Motion Tracking
- Haoyang Fan — Accelerating GNN Inference via Automated Parallel Execution on Edge Heterogeneous Platforms
- Hong-En Chen — FIG: Feed-Forward Image Generation with Statistical Modeling
- Soumya Mahapatra — A mm-Wave Digital Transmitter Using Multiphase Subharmonic Switching PA
- Nikunj Gupta — Deep Meta Coordination Graphs for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
- Mohammad Shafiqul Islam — Wearable Sensor System for Precision Mental Health
Master’s Student Poster Winners
- Sungmin Kang — GEM: A Scale-Aware and Distribution-Sensitive Sparse Fine-Tuning Framework for Effective Downstream Adaptation
Undergraduate Student Poster Winners
- Ana Sanson Leon — Comprehensive Assessment of Nonuniform Image Quality: Replication and Application to Imaging Near Metal at 0.55T
- Leire Lizarralde — Graph Signal Processing–Based Audio Zero-Watermarking Under TSM Attacks
Ming Hsieh delivering a speech during the awards ceremony at this year’s research festival (Photo Credit: Venice Tang)
House under USC Viterbi’s Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the USC School of Advanced Computing, the Ming Hsieh Institute (MHI) was launched in 2010 to empower researchers to lead technological advancement in the electrical and computer engineering fields. The institute was founded after a generous endowment gift of $35 million dollars from the department’s Alumnus and Trustee, Ming Hsieh. Read more about Ming here. Photos from the research festival are now available here.
Published on November 10th, 2025
Last updated on November 10th, 2025
