Purdue ECE alumni honored as 2025 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineers
The Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering celebrated six distinguished alumni during its 33rd annual Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer (OECE) awards ceremony, held Oct. 17 in the Shively Club at Ross-Ade Stadium..
Since 1992, the OECE award has recognized the professional excellence of Purdue ECE graduates whose innovation, leadership, and impact bring distinction to their alma mater and the field of electrical and computer engineering. This year’s recipients represent excellence across academia, industry, and entrepreneurship.
“Our OECE honorees embody everything we aspire to in Purdue ECE,” said Milind Kulkarni, Michael and Katherine Birck Head and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “They are shaping industries, leading teams, launching technologies, and solving global challenges. We’re proud to call them our alumni.”
Photos from the event are available here.
2025 OECE Honorees
Rouz Jazayeri (BSEE ’02, MSECE ’04)
Jazayeri is co-founder and general partner of Catapult Ventures, one of the world’s leading seed-stage deep tech funds. His career began as an engineer at Intel, where he helped develop milestone products such as Intel’s first 45nm microprocessor and the first MacBook Air to achieve over 12 hours of battery life. Before founding Catapult, he worked at Kleiner Perkins, partnering with innovators from Quantumscape, DJI, Ring, and MyFitnessPal.
Kun Hyuk Kang (PhD ECE ’07)
Kang is Corporate Vice President at Samsung Electronics, where he leads next-generation GPU design for system-on-chip products. With more than 20 years of experience spanning roles at Intel, Qualcomm, and Samsung, he has made influential contributions to semiconductor design and electronic design automation that continue to shape the technology landscape.
Hai (Helen) Li (PhD ECE ’04)
Li serves as the Marie Foote Reel Distinguished Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. An internationally recognized researcher, she is known for pioneering work in brain-inspired computing, memory systems, and machine learning acceleration. Her leadership and scholarship have helped define the future of intelligent computing architectures.
Yuxin “Zoe” Liu (PhD ECE ’04)
Liu is co-founder and CEO of Visionular, an AI-powered video solutions company serving nearly 200 enterprise customers worldwide. She has held technical leadership positions at Bell Labs, Nokia, HP, Apple, and Google—where she contributed to technologies including FaceTime and Google Glass Video Call—and played a key role in developing the AV1 video coding standard widely used across the streaming industry.
Vivek Vasant Thakkar (BSCmpE ’01)
Thakkar is Vice President at Apple, leading sales and business development for Apple’s Worldwide Enterprise, Worldwide Education, and U.S. Carrier business. His career has spanned product management, engineering, supply chain, and sales. A dedicated Boilermaker, Thakkar also serves on the Purdue ECE Advisory Board, helping guide the next generation of technology and leadership in the field.
In addition to the 2025 honorees, Robert J. McMillen (BSEE ’78, MSEE ’80, PhD ’82), who was unable to attend last year’s event, was recognized as a member of the OECE Class of 2024. McMillen is a retired computer architect and co-founder of Edico Genome, where he led development of the DRAGEN genomic data processor—an innovation that processes an entire human genome a thousand times faster than a supercomputer.
The evening also celebrated several Purdue ECE faculty members for their teaching and research achievements, including the inaugural Paul C. Krause Faculty Research Award recipients, James Davis and Aravind Machiry.
Other honorees included Qi Guo (Motorola Teaching Award), Luis Gomez and Qi Guo (Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Awards), and Shreyas Sundaram (Wilfred “Duke” Hesselberth Award for Teaching Excellence).