Ahmad Beirami and Zhixuan Xia have been chosen for Sigma Xi Best Ph.D. Thesis Awards, which will be presented at the Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Awards Dinner on April 15. Both are affiliated with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Beirami’s thesis was entitled “Network Compression via Network Memory: Fundamental Performance Limits." Data compression is of great practical importance as it can reduce the volume of daily data communication and storage. His thesis quantifies the degree of data compression in finite-length data, such as network packets. It also proposes algorithms that take advantage of network nodes equipped with memory to approach the Shannon compression limit of arbitrarily long sequences. Advised by Faramarz Fekri, Beirami graduated in May 2014 and is now a postdoctoral associate and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of ECE at Duke University.

Xia’s thesis was entitled “Highly Sensitive, Multiplexed Integrated Photonic Structures for Lab-on-a-Chip Sensing.” The focus of Xia’s doctoral research and his thesis was to develop essential building blocks for compact, low-cost, and high performance optical sensing systems for environmental and health care applications. Advised by Ali Adibi, Xia defended his thesis in December 2014 and will graduate in May 2015. He is now a senior research and development engineer at Atlanta-based Sinoora, Inc., a spin-off company of Georgia Tech and Adibi's Photonics Research Group.