IEEE CS names Narayanan Rengaswamy a Top 30 Early Career Professional
ECE assistant professor Narayanan Rengaswamy (third from left) leads the Scalable Quantum Architectures by Leveraging Error-correction (SQALE) research group at the University of Arizona.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society honored Narayanan Rengaswamy, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, in its list of Computing’s Top 30 Early Career Professionals for 2025.
“This esteemed group of rising stars earned this honor for their exceptional early-career achievements and role in driving advancements across the computing landscape,” the society announced on Dec. 16, 2025.
The society recognized Rengaswamy for his work on fault tolerance in quantum computing and networking. Fault tolerance seeks to reduce the spread of errors and their cascading effects during a computational process.
Quantum computing can increase speed and data storage exponentially over classical computing in some applications, potentially boosting research in health care, digital security, and artificial intelligence. However, hurdles exist because subatomic particles that store data and physical structures that manipulate them are susceptible to errors from noise – heat and radiation.
“Mistakes or errors caused by noise are going to happen, but if you have the proper structures in place, you can limit the damage,” Rengaswamy said.
A career on the rise
Rengaswamy earned his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Duke University in May 2020, where he expanded his expertise from classical error correction to the quantum realm. He joined the ECE department as an assistant professor in 2022.
“I was attracted by the mathematics of quantum computing and inspired by the possibilities enabled by this disruptive technology,” he said.
Rengaswamy joined a team with lead researcher Bane Vasić, the Kenneth Von Behren Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and ECE doctoral student Shantom Borah, to improve quantum computer reliability at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center.
He also collaborates with ECE assistant professor Christos Gagatsos on a $1.4 million U.S. Army Research Office-funded project to investigate the application of quantum error correction in magnetic field sensing.
Additionally, Rengaswamy serves as investigator at the Center for Quantum Networks, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center devoted to building a quantum internet – an interconnected system of data centers, computers and sensors. The network would allow researchers to pair remote quantum computers into high-performance clusters.
“Scientists in two different locations could collect astronomical data with quantum sensors,” he said. “You can construct probes through these sensors that are connected via quantum entanglement and extract more information than is possible today.”
Entanglement occurs when two particles become so deeply connected that they mimic state changes across distances.
The IEEE CS honor joins a stream of recognitions for Rengaswamy. The Fermilab research group’s work on error correction codes won a Best Paper Award in the Quantum Algorithms Track at the 2024 IEEE Quantum Week. His recent work with ECE doctoral student Zhuangzhuang Chen and master's student Jack Weinberg won a Best Paper Award in the Quantum Algorithms Track at the 2025 IEEE Quantum Week.
“I believe the intersection of mathematical elegance and engineering insight will build useful systems that will make an immense positive impact on society.”