Charles Wilts Prize

The Doctoral Prize named after Charles H. Wilts has been instituted by his Caltech colleagues and was endowed by his friends, students, and colleagues as a lasting tribute to the scientist, the teacher, and the man he was. The mark of his science was excellence. His teaching was rigorous and his demands were high, but attainable when his own path of exactitude followed. Most of all, it is the man that the prize wants to honor. He loved nature enthusiastically, had a disarming personal simplicity with an engaging smile and laugh, and possessed an unbending integrity and rectitude he placed above any concerns for fame, power, or profit. He deeply respected his fellow men.
The Charles Wilts Prize is awarded every year to one EE graduate student for outstanding independent research in electrical engineering leading to a PhD.

Kuan-Chang Chen
Advisor: Azita Emami
Thesis: Energy-Efficient Receiver Design for High-Speed Interconnects.

Jin Sima
Advisor: Shuki Bruck
Thesis: Correcting Errors in DNA Storage

Oguzhan Teke
Advisor:
Thesis: Signals on Networks: Random Asynchronous and Multirate Processing, and Uncertainty Principles

Lei Li
Advisor: Lihong Wang
Thesis: Multi-contrast Photoacoustic Computed Tomography

Srikanth Venkata Tenneti
Advisor: P. P. Vaidyanathan
Thesis: The Nested Periodic Subspaces: Extensions of Ramanujan Sums for Period Estimation

Behrooz Abiri
Advisor: Ali Hajimiri
Thesis: Silicon Integrated Arrays: From Microwave to IR

Manuel Alejandro Monge Osorio
Advisor: Azita Emami
Thesis: Localization and Stimulation Techniques for Implantable Medical Electronics

Changhong Zhao
Advisor: Steven Low
Thesis: Real-Time Load-Side Control of Electric Power Systems

Roarke Horstmeyer
Advisor: Changhuei Yang
Thesis: Computational Microscopy: Turning Megapixels into Gigapixels

Carlos Roberto Gonzalez
Advisors: Yaser Abu-Mostafa and Pietro Perona
Thesis: Optimal Data Distributions in Machine Learning

Samet Oymak
Advisor: Babak Hassibi
Thesis: Convex Relaxation for Low-Dimensional Representation: Phase Transitions and Limitations

Piya Pal
Advisor: P P Vaidyanathan
Thesis: New directions in sparse sampling and estimation for underdetermined systems

Kaushik Sengupta
Advisor: Ali Hajimiri
Thesis: Silicon-based Terahertz Circuits and Systems

Hongchao Zhou
Advisor: Shuki Bruck
Thesis: Randomness and Noise in Information Systems

Mohammad Amin Khajehnejad
Advisor: Babak Hassibi
Thesis: Combinatorial Regression and Improved Basis Pursuit for Sparse Estimation

Ching-Chih Weng
Advisor: PP Vaidyanathan
Thesis: The Role of Majorization and Generalized Triangular Decomposition in Communication and Signal Processing

Edward A. Keehr
Advisor: Ali Hajimiri
Thesis: Techniques for Mixed-Signal Linearization and Large Signal Handling in Radio-Frequency Receiver Circuits

Weiyu Xu
Advisor: Babak Hassibi
Thesis: Compressive Sensing for Sparse Approximations: Constructions, Algorithms, and Analysis.

Aydin Babakhani
Advisor: Ali Hajimiri
Thesis: Near-Field Direct Antenna Modulation (NFDAM) for on-chip mm-wave transceivers

Borching Su
Advisor: P.P. Vaidyanathan
Thesis: Blind Channel Estimation Using Redundant Precoding: New Algorithms, Analysis, and Theory

Ao Kevin Tang
Advisor: Steven Low
Thesis: Heterogeneous Congestion Control Protocols

Masoud Sharif
Advisor: Babak Hassibi
Thesis: Broadband Wireless Broadcast Channels: Throughput, Performance, and PAPR Reduction

Deniz Armani
Advisor: Kerry Vahala
Thesis: Ultra-High-Q Planar Microcavities and Applications

Andre Tkacenko
Advisor: P.P. Vaidyanathan
Thesis: Optimization Algorithms for Realizable Signal-Adapted Filter Banks

Marc Riedel
Advisor: Jehoshua (Shuki) Bruck
Thesis: Cyclic Combinational Circuits

Shayan Mookherjea
Advisor: Amnon Yariv
Thesis: Coupled-resonator Optical Waveguides and Multiplexed Solitons

Massimo Franceschetti
Advisor: Jehoshua (Shuki) Bruck
Thesis: Wireless Networks, from Collective Behavior to the Physics of Propagation

Donhee Ham
Advisor: Ali Hajimiri
Thesis: Statistical Electronics: Noise Processes in Integrated Communication Systems

Srinivas Mandayam Aji
Advisor: Robert McEliece
Thesis: Graphical Models and Iterative Decoding

Ali Adibi
Advisor: Demetri Psaltis
Thesis: Persistent Holographic Storage in Photorefractive Crystals

Mohamed-Slim Alouini
Advisor: Andrea Goldsmith
Thesis: Adaptive and Diversity Techniques for Wireless Digital Communications Over Fading Channels

Malik Magdon-Ismail
Advisor: Yaser Abu-Mostafa
Thesis: Supervised Learning in Probabilistic Environments

See-May Phoong
Advisor: P.P. Vaidyanathan
Thesis: Time-Varying and Finite Field Filter Banks

Fernando Paganini Herrera
Advisor: John Doyle
Thesis: Sets and Constraints in the Analysis of Uncertain Systems

Sidney Li Hsin-Yu
Advisor: Demetri Psaltis
Thesis: Photorefractive 3-D Disks for Optical Data Storage and Artificial Neural Networks

Enrico Santi
Advisor: Slobodan Cuk
Thesis: Magnetics and Control in Power Electronics: I. Modeling of Coupled Inductors. II. One-Cycle Control of Switching Converters.

Tsuhan Chen
Advisor: P.P. Vaidyanathan
Thesis: Multidimensional Multirate Filters and Filter Banks: Theory, Design, and Implementation

Ian Andrew Galton
Advisor: Edward C. Posner
Thesis: An Analysis of Quantization Noise in Delta-Sigma Modulation and Its Application to Parallel Delta-Sigma Modulation