Team

Principal Investigator

Taiyun Chi, Ph.D. ( LinkedIn )

Taiyun Chi, Ph.D. (LinkedIn)

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Taiyun Chi joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Rice University in January 2019. He received the B.S. degree (with highest honor) from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2012, and the Ph.D. degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2017.

Dr. Chi is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2023, the Rice School of Engineering Teaching and Research Excellence Award in 2023, the Sigma Xi Best Ph.D. Thesis Award (Georgia Tech Chapter) in 2018, the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) Best Paper Award in 2017, the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) Predoctoral Achievement Award in 2017, the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Graduate Fellowship for Medical Applications in 2016, and the USTC Guo Moruo Presidential Scholarship in 2012.

His RISE group has received multiple Best Paper Awards and nominations, including the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) Lewis Winner Outstanding Paper Award in 2025 and 2024, the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) Advanced Practice Paper Award Finalist in 2024 and 2021, the IEEE RFIC Symposium Industry Paper Award Finalist in 2023, the IEEE RFIC Symposium Best Student Paper Award Finalist in 2022, the IEEE CICC Best Student Paper Award in 2021, and the Texas Wireless Symposium Student Research Competition Award (1st Place) in 2021.

Postdoc

Qiang Zhou

Qiang Zhou

Ph.D. Students

Gerald Topalli

Gerald Topalli

  • M.S., Rice University, Houston, TX, 2024
  • B.Sc., Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Istanbul, Turkey, 2020
  • Hershel M. Rich Invention Award, Rice University, 2025
  • IEEE CICC Travel Grant, 2023
  • IEEE IMS/RFIC Travel Grant, 2022
  • Rice IBB Travel Grant Award, 2022
  • Ranked 3rd in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, ITU
  • Albanian National Mathematics Olympiad Winner (2nd prize), 2016
Hang Wang

Hang Wang

  • M.S., Rice University, Houston, TX, 2024
  • B.S., School of Gifted Young, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, China, 2020
  • Rice Travel Grant for IEEE CICC, 2025
  • IEEE IMS/RFIC Travel Grant, 2022
  • Silver Prize, Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship, 2019
  • Grand Prize, Competition of Physical Research Experiments of University, 2018
  • 1st Prize & Best Player Award, China Undergraduate Physics Tournament, 2017
Houbo He

Houbo He

  • M.S., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), 2024
  • B.S., City University of Hong Kong, 2022
  • DAC Young Fellow, 2025
  • IEEE IMS/RFIC Travel Grant, 2025
  • HKSAR Government Scholarship, 2019 – 2021
Jiyuan Duan

Jiyuan Duan

  • B.S., Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2025
  • Undergraduate Visiting Student, Rice University, 2024 – 2025
  • Shanghai Government Scholarship, 2023
  • National Scholarship, 2022
Yiling Xie

Yiling Xie

  • M.S., Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, 2025
  • B.E., Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, 2022
  • National Scholarship, 2024
  • Outstanding Graduate of Sun Yat-sen University

Undergraduate Students

Helena Wang (Class of 2028)

Helena Wang (Class of 2028)

Benjamin LeGrand (Class of 2028)

Benjamin LeGrand (Class of 2028)

Alumni

Hao Guo (Postdoc and Research Scientist, 2022 – 2025)

Hao Guo (Postdoc and Research Scientist, 2022 – 2025)

  • After Rice: Professor at USTC
  • Publications: DAC 2025, CICC 2025, ISSCC 2025, ISSCC 2024, JSSC 2024, T-MTT 2025, CICC 2023, ISSCC 2025
  • Ph.D., University of Macau, Macau, China, 2021
  • M.S., Institute of Microelectronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMECAS), Beijing, China, 2017
  • B.S., University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, China, 2014
  • ISSCC Lewis Winner Outstanding Paper Award, 2025 and 2024
Yingying Fan (Ph.D., 2019 – 2024; Postdoc, 2024 – 2025)

Yingying Fan (Ph.D., 2019 – 2024; Postdoc, 2024 – 2025)

Yaolong Hu (Ph.D., 2019 – 2024)

Yaolong Hu (Ph.D., 2019 – 2024)

Xiaohan Zhang (Ph.D., 2020 – 2024)

Xiaohan Zhang (Ph.D., 2020 – 2024)

Jingyun Bi (visiting student from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2025 – 2026)

Jingyun Bi (visiting student from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2025 – 2026)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at Hong Kong University
Yueqi Xing (visiting student from Wuhan University, 2025 – 2026)

Yueqi Xing (visiting student from Wuhan University, 2025 – 2026)

  • After Rice: M.S. at UC Berkeley
Chris Han (B.S., 2026)

Chris Han (B.S., 2026)

  • After Rice: AI/CAD Software Engineer at Falcomm
  • NSF REU recipient, 2025
Lei Xia (MECE, 2025)

Lei Xia (MECE, 2025)

  • B.S., Hubei Polytechnic University, 2024
Ruizhe (Eric) Wang (M.S., 2025)

Ruizhe (Eric) Wang (M.S., 2025)

  • B.S., UC San Diego, 2023
  • Provost Honors, UCSD, 2023
Qikai Chen (visiting student from Peking University, 2025)

Qikai Chen (visiting student from Peking University, 2025)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at UC Berkeley
Ruizhe Zhao (visiting student from Peking University, 2025)

Ruizhe Zhao (visiting student from Peking University, 2025)

Yaxin (Abigail) Bo (B.S., 2025)

Yaxin (Abigail) Bo (B.S., 2025)

  • After Rice: Rice MECE program
  • Intern at Motif Neurotech, 2023 – 2024
Yizhou Xu (visiting student from UCAS, 2024 – 2025)

Yizhou Xu (visiting student from UCAS, 2024 – 2025)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at ETH Zurich
Didi Zhou (B.S., 2025)

Didi Zhou (B.S., 2025)

  • CASS Student Design Competition World Champion, 2025
  • NSF REU recipient, 2023
Jiaqi Liu (MECE, 2024)

Jiaqi Liu (MECE, 2024)

  • B.S., University College Dublin, 2023
  • B.S., Beijing University of Technology, 2023
Bill Rui (B.S., 2024)

Bill Rui (B.S., 2024)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at Princeton
  • First-author paper at IEEE ICC, 2024
Jack Tomkiewicz (B.S., 2024)

Jack Tomkiewicz (B.S., 2024)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at MIT
  • IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate Scholarship, 2023
  • Invited to present at Rice Shapiro Showcase, 2023
  • First-author paper at IEEE Texas Wireless Symposium, 2023
Yan Xu (visiting student from UESTC, 2022 – 2023)

Yan Xu (visiting student from UESTC, 2022 – 2023)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at MIT
Yulei Shen (B.S., 2023)

Yulei Shen (B.S., 2023)

  • After Rice: Ph.D. at UIUC
James Allen Morrison (M.S., 2022)

James Allen Morrison (M.S., 2022)

  • After Rice: RF engineer at Jacobs
Madeline Stern (B.S., 2022)

Madeline Stern (B.S., 2022)

  • After Rice: hardware device engineer at Alarm.com
Katrina Ji (B.S., 2022)

Katrina Ji (B.S., 2022)

  • After Rice: M.S. at UPenn
  • NSF Student Registration Award for IEEE RFIC/IMS 2020
  • Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), 2020
Robert Chen (B.S., 2022)

Robert Chen (B.S., 2022)

  • After Rice: working in an aerospace startup
  • Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), 2020