Third-year Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Ph.D. student Srujan Penta recently received the Quad Fellowship for his work developing cost-effective chips with more power than existing systems.

The global fellowship program is a joint initiative of the Australian, Indian, Japan, and United States governments to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists.

It sponsors exceptional master's and doctoral students who study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), building a network of experts committed to advancing innovation and collaboration in the private, public, and academic sectors.

“I anticipate leveraging my experience as a Quad Fellow and connections within the Quad community towards my long-term goals of democratizing the semiconductor chip supply chain and providing education and employment opportunities to individuals from marginalized communities in STEM,” Penta said.

Penta’s doctoral research, conducted under ECE professor Muhannad Bakir in his Integrated 3D Systems Group, aims to bridge the performance-cost trade-off gap between standardized chiplet-based systems that perform better than a traditional system-on-a-chip.

He was one of 50 students to receive the fellowship world-wide, including four recipients from Georgia Tech, Penta being the only recipient from ECE.

“I am grateful to my family, friends, peers, the School of ECE and my advisor, Muhannad Bakir who supported me in the application process,” Penta said. “I am excited about this unique opportunity to connect with world leaders in the key roles for the development of the Indo-Pacific regions, specifically the semiconductor landscape."

Penta is from Hyderabad, India, and graduated with a B.E. in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India.

He worked on state-of-the-art transistor technologies as a process design kit engineer at Samsung Semiconductors in Bengaluru, India, before pursuing his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech in 2022.

Penta is also committed to furthering his understanding of the business side of engineering. He is part of the Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results (TI:GER) program at the Georgia Tech Scheller School of Business, where he learns about the entrepreneurial strategies for technical ideas and innovations.