Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

📚 Whether based on fact or fiction or something in between, or focus on either the serious or humorous sides of life, the best books can prepare us to face life's inevitable challenges, broaden our perspective and enrich our spirit — or simply provide an entertaining or intriguing mentally healthy escape from the daily grind. Our annual "Essential Reading" feature provides recommendations on books that offer those benefits in creative and engaging ways.

Essential Reading: Books brimming with insight from fact to fiction Fulton Schools faculty and staff members recommend books from which students can reap knowledge and wisdom, while also enjoying engaging tales of fact or fiction.

Engineering intelligence begins with creativity, expertise and judgment; it powers the systems and solutions that keep our world moving. That same spirit drives faculty members in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering as they blend human insight with technological innovation to solve big problems and expand what’s possible. This International Women in Engineering Day, we celebrate their impact across the Fulton Schools and beyond.

Growing AI adoption is placing unprecedented demands on computing and data communication infrastructure. Supporting increasingly powerful AI systems requires massive computational resources, making the development of scalable hardware architectures a critical engineering challenge.

In the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at ASU, part of , Assistant Professor Jiaqi Gu has been awarded a 2026 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award to tackle this challenge head-on.

The award will support Gu’s work to develop open-source electronic-photonic design automation tools that make it faster and easier to design next-generation chips that use both electronics and light. These technologies could help address growing energy usage and performance challenges in AI, communications and sensing systems by enabling more efficient computing hardware.

The project will also create new educational opportunities through hands-on learning, open-source resources and workforce development activities that prepare students for the future of semiconductor and AI technologies.

Illuminating the future of photonic AI chip design Jiaqi Gu receives an NSF CAREER Award to investigate how AI and design automation can accelerate the simulation and optimization of complex electronic-photonic AI systems.

’s new bachelor of applied science degree in manufacturing systems helps community college graduates and industry professionals build on technical training and prepare for advanced careers in Arizona’s growing manufacturing sector.

ASU launches new pathway for manufacturing careers New degree pathway helps community college graduates and technicians advance their education while supporting Arizona’s growing manufacturing workforce.

Many of today’s artificial intelligence, or AI, systems waste enormous computational resources repeating the same work.

Jia Zou, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering in the ASU School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of , is developing new ways to make AI significantly more efficient by rethinking how databases and AI models work together. Her team’s projects, InferF and CactusDB, reduce redundant computation, minimize unnecessary data movement and speed up AI processing.

The research was presented at major international conferences including the IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering and the ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference.

As systems consume growing amounts of energy and infrastructure resources, Zou’s work highlights an increasingly important challenge for the future of AI: not just building better models but building systems efficient enough to scale sustainably in the real world.

The hidden waste inside AI Jia Zou’s systems rethink how databases and AI models work together to reduce computational waste.

What happens when communication networks, autonomous systems and smart infrastructure need to make decisions in unpredictable environments?

Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, an associate professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at ASU, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, is developing the mathematical and AI-driven tools that help complex systems learn, adapt and make decisions under uncertainty.

In the PROTON Lab, her team explores challenges ranging from next-generation wireless networks and resilient communication systems to autonomous drones and intelligent infrastructure to help future technologies operate more efficiently, reliably and securely.

Beyond research, Tsiropoulou is also helping train the next wave of innovators, mentoring students and creating opportunities for them to publish, collaborate and engage with the global research community. Tsiropoulou also serves as advisor to the recently formed IEEE Student Branch Chapter for Communications Society at ASU, which aims to bolster technical knowledge and professional development opportunities.

As intelligent systems become increasingly embedded in everyday life, the challenge is no longer simply connecting devices, rather enabling them to coordinate, learn and perform responsibly. That future is being built at ASU today.

Making hidden networks smarter ASU researcher Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou is shaping intelligent systems that support the next generation of critical networks like 6G.

What happens when data visualizations tell the whole truth?

New research from the ASU School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of , reveals a surprising paradox. When maps show uncertainty in their underlying data, people trust the maps less.

In a study presented at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, industrial engineering doctoral student Varun Srivastava and collaborators found that visual cues designed to communicate uncertainty, including blurred or softened map features, consistently reduced perceptions of a map’s accuracy. Yet those same cues had little effect on how participants viewed the honesty or integrity of the mapmaker.

The findings raise important questions for journalists, scientists and policymakers who rely on data visualizations to communicate complex information. If transparency about uncertainty makes audiences doubt the data, how should we present the realities of an uncertain world?

The map that finds the truth and loses you Showing uncertainty should build trust. Instead, new ASU research shows it makes people doubt the data they’re seeing.

Calling all Sun Devils with a creative spark. The Polytechnic campus is celebrating 30 years, and you’re invited to design the commemorative artwork. If you’re a current student or alum who spent time at Poly, this is your chance to leave your mark on a big anniversary moment. https://innercircle.engineering.asu.edu/2026/05/celebrate-30-years-of-asus-polytechnic-campus-by-designing-commemorative-artwork/

Assistant Professor Sandhya Susarla recently received the U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory Early Career Program Award to prove it.

In her new project, Sandhya Susarla studies materials at the mesoscale, roughly 100 to 200 nanometers, where she believes hidden topological defects could pave the way for faster, lower-power technologies.

“Today, if you copy 200 gigabytes of data to your hard drive, it might take like 30 minutes,” Susarla says. “If this technology is realized, it could only take like three minutes. These numbers are examples, but we’re talking about orders of magnitude of change.”

Not all defects in semiconductors are bad Sandhya Susarla receives the Army Research Office Early Career Program Award to discover hidden defects with unexpected influence on materials behavior.

⛏️ Assistant Professor Hamed Khodadadi Tirkolaei and his team test ways to stabilize mining waste and reduce erosion that could carry contaminants into nearby waterways.

“By using an enzyme-based process to form natural mineral bonds within the soil, we can create a protective crust that helps limit erosion and dust generation while avoiding more chemically intensive treatments,” Khodadadi Tirkolaei says.

This Arizona Department of Environmental Quality supported project, is an example of how researchers across the ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment explore ways to advance responsible critical-mineral production, reduce environmental impacts and strengthen domestic supply chains.
It also reflects the ASU Mining Innovation Initiative’s priorities to collaborate with industry to identify research, sustainability and workforce development needs and raise awareness about mining careers among K-12 students.

Recovering critical minerals from waste ASU researchers develop ways to refine and reuse discarded materials to reduce reliance on imports.