Atharva and Je-Wei Win QIF 2026

Atharva Raut of the NEXUS Research Group and Je-Wei Chuang of the Advanced Chip Test Laboratory (ACTL) have been named winners of the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship 2026 for their proposal, “Test-Calibrated Thermal Digital Twins for Chiplet 2.5D/3D SoCs.” The work is advised by Prof. Tathagata Srimani and Prof. Shawn Blanton.

Their proposal addresses a major challenge in advanced chiplet-based systems. Thermal behavior is difficult to predict accurately because of the complex and non-ideal heat-flow paths across the die, interposer, package, and cooling stack. The proposed work aims to develop a test-calibrated thermal digital twin that combines compact thermal modeling, structured thermal excitation during test, on-chip sensor measurements, and lightweight machine-learning correction to capture silicon- and package-specific variation.

This proposal was selected as one of the 16 winning teams in Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship North America 2026, out of a total of 392 submissions from universities in the US and Canada. It represents an exciting first step toward more accurate, silicon-aware thermal modeling for future chiplet-based systems.

Link to the QIF webpage: 2026 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship for North America | US QIF 2026 | Qualcomm