Source: Electrical Engineering
Columbia Electrical Engineering PhD Stephen Xia will join the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern University as an Assistant Professor in September 2023. At Northwestern University, Stephen will work at the intersection of systems, embedded AI, and data, to bring AI to the physical world and realize next generation applications and services in areas such as mobile and embedded computing, IoT, wearables, smart health, and intelligent built environments. Stephen completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in 2022, working with Professor Xiaofan (Fred) Jiang in the Columbia Intelligent and Connected Systems Lab (ICSL), after completing his B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Rice University. He is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar with joint appointments in the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia University and the EECS Department at UC Berkeley.
During his time with Columbia EE, Stephen has led and contributed to a wide range of high-profile projects, including two NSF funded projects on embedding acoustic intelligence into wearables and mobile platforms to improve urban safety and create safer and privacy-aware mobile platforms. His doctoral work focuses on realizing general and robust acoustic intelligence that is adaptable to a wide range of resource-constrained applications by leveraging physical models of audio to inform more efficient data-driven methods for audio filtering. Beyond acoustics, Stephen has created wearables and sensing systems for continuously monitoring aspects of our physical and mental health, as well as platforms that allow for better human interaction, control, and usability of smart home and building systems. Recently, Stephen has been exploring autonomous systems, such as drones, with trustworthy and energy-efficient sensing-to-action control loops that can adapt to real-time changes to the environment.
“Up until now, my time with Columbia EE has been the most meaningful period of my life. My decision to join Columbia EE stemmed from its history of excellence in global research and impact. Despite having this in mind, the opportunities, faculty, students, staff, colleagues, and life-long friends I have met and experienced were leaps and bounds more than I could ever imagine from when I first came to New York. Although I am extremely excited for the wonderful opportunity of starting my academic career at Northwestern University, my experiences, relationships, and training at Columbia will continue to have an indelible impact on my life and career.”
– Stephen Xia