ECE Student Awarded Carnegie Mellon Dean’s Fellowship

Though sad to see him go, ECE associate professor Ali Akoglu has a lot of faith in his student Ruben Purdy’s future.

“I am very proud of his achievements and the prestigious offers he has been receiving from top-ranked graduate programs,” Akoglu said.

One such offer is a Dean’s Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon’s PhD program, where Purdy will further his education in electrical engineering, an education he’s already put to work in a Raytheon-funded foray into neuromorphic computing systems.

Two years ago, Purdy joined Akoglu and a team of graduate and undergraduate students – backed by Raytheon’s $100,000 a year financing – to advance understanding about these computers built to work more like a human brain.

“Ruben led the design and development of the simulation environment to provide a flexible software and hardware framework for neuromorphic research,” Akoglu said. “The scope of this project requires a student to not only understand and articulate the ideas presented in published studies, but also reverse-engineer the critical design decisions that are not addressed by those cutting-edge research papers. Ruben has the highest potential to contribute to the scientific community as a leader in his field.”

“I’m really grateful for my family, friends and lab mates, and especially for Dr. Akoglu,” Purdy said. “I’ve had a ton of fun working in his lab, I’ve learned a lot, and it’s given me so many amazing opportunities. I’m really going to miss everyone but I’m excited to go on a new adventure.”

Purdy is also a member of Team 18037, who will be putting their “Vehicle Detection for Cyclist Safety” system on display April 29 alongside 117 other teams at Engineering Design Day 2019.