Peking University, March 10, 2026: At the 73rd IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2026), recently held in San Francisco, Wu Zihan, a doctoral student from the School of Integrated Circuits at Peking University, received the inaugural 2025 IEEE SSCS Predoctoral Achievement Prize, or the Kenneth C. (KC) Smith Award. The award recognizes his outstanding research contributions in in-memory computing, search technologies, and their applications in solving complex optimization problems.
The award, established this year by the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS), honors pioneering circuit researcher Kenneth C. Smith and recognizes exceptional doctoral researchers in solid-state circuits. As one of the most prestigious recognitions for PhD students in integrated circuit research, no more than two recipients are selected worldwide each year, highlighting the significance of Wu’s achievement.
Wu’s work focuses on reconstructing computational paradigms for combinatorial optimization through circuit-level innovations. These optimization problems are important in fields such as biomedical computing and electronic design automation (EDA). By adopting a hardware–software co-design strategy, Wu aims to enable efficient solutions to large-scale optimization tasks while reducing computational bottlenecks and energy consumption.
He has published 15 papers in leading journals and conferences, including ISSCC, CICC, JSSC, and TCAS-I. He also serves as a reviewer for IEEE journals and conferences and is currently Vice Chair of the Peking University Solid-State Circuits Society Student Branch Chapter, contributing to academic exchange and community activities.
