Alana Dee (left) and Marziyeh Rezaei (right) are second-year doctoral students at UW ECE and each is a recipient of a 2022 Cadence Diversity in Technology Scholarship. Both students are advised by UW ECE Assistant Professor Sajjad Moazeni.
Cadence, a world leader in electronic systems design, recently announced that two UW ECE doctoral students are among 38 recipients of the company’s 2022 Diversity in Technology Scholarship. This annual award recognizes underrepresented university students in technical fields who demonstrate outstanding leadership skills, academic achievement and drive to shape the world of technology.
Alana Dee and Marziyeh Rezaei are both second-year doctoral students at UW ECE, advised by Assistant Professor Sajjad Moazeni. Graduate students in Moazeni’s lab, such as Dee and Rezaei, conduct research at the intersection of integrated system design and photonics, with applications in computing and communication, sensing and imaging, and the life sciences.
“I really enjoy working with creative and hardworking students like Alana and Marziyeh,” Moazeni said. “I am also very proud of my students, whose great work is now being recognized and appreciated with this award, early in their professional life.”
Alana Dee
Dee received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 2021 from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a focus on signal processing and communications. At UW ECE, her research is focused on mixed-signal integrated circuits for computing and communication applications. Dee’s current research project is developing a CMOS-based Ising Machine for accelerated combinatorial optimization.
“This scholarship validates the work I’ve put into becoming a better electrical engineer and a diversity advocate in my field,” Dee said. “The financial support also allows me to spend my time focusing on research projects and community involvement.”
Marziyeh Rezaei
Rezaei received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 2020 from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, with a focus on electronic integrated circuit design. At UW ECE, she is focusing on integrated circuits and optical systems design. Rezaei has been studying security aspects of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for autonomous vehicles. Her research illustrates the possibility of spoofing attacks against LiDAR systems and solutions for preventing this type of attack. She presented her work at the 2022 Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security (ASHES) conference.
“Winning this scholarship elevated my respect for myself as a female engineer and helped me, as a woman, to develop my position in the field of electronics.” Rezaei said. “The scholarship also provided further motivation for me to pursue my goals.”
More information about Cadence Diversity in Technology Scholarship programs is available on the company’s website.