Elevating emerging engineers
The UW College of Engineering's Industry Capstone Program partners UW ECE students with sponsor organizations to devise innovative solutions to real-world problems.
https://www.engr.washington.edu/news/article/2026-07-06/elevating-emerging-engineers
https://ece.uw.edu/spotlight/ai-for-power-systems-planning/
Using AI to improve power systems planning in the Global South
UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu is part of a multi-organization team that has received a grant to develop machine learning datasets, which will enable fast, flexible, and accessible power systems planning in underserved communities.
https://ece.uw.edu/spotlight/shwetak-patel-2026-aaas-election/
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel was recently elected part of the 2026 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences for his pioneering contributions to computer science.
https://ece.uw.edu/spotlight/https-www-ece-uw-edu-news-events-graduation-2/
Congratulations, Class of 2026!
UW ECE offers our congratulations to the graduating Class of 2026. We wish you all the best for the future!
https://ece.uw.edu/spotlight/2026-graduation-student-speakers/
Two student speakers selected for UW ECE Graduation
UW ECE is proud to announce that Khushbu Patel (MSECE ‘26) and Kathryn Fehme (BSECE ‘26) have been selected to speak at this year's Graduation Ceremony.
https://ece.uw.edu/spotlight/akira-ishimaru/
Akira Ishimaru — A lifetime dedicated to engineering
UW ECE Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru spent 73 years at UW ECE focused on learning. His talent and hard work led to important contributions in the study of electromagnetic wave propagation, launched the careers of many of his students, and laid a foundation for the advanced technologies we rely on today.
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[_finalHTML:protected] => https://www.engr.washington.edu/news/article/2026-07-06/elevating-emerging-engineersElevating emerging engineers
The UW College of Engineering's Industry Capstone Program partners UW ECE students with sponsor organizations to devise innovative solutions to real-world problems.
Using AI to improve power systems planning in the Global South
UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu is part of a multi-organization team that has received a grant to develop machine learning datasets, which will enable fast, flexible, and accessible power systems planning in underserved communities.
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel was recently elected part of the 2026 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences for his pioneering contributions to computer science.
Congratulations, Class of 2026!
UW ECE offers our congratulations to the graduating Class of 2026. We wish you all the best for the future!
Two student speakers selected for UW ECE Graduation
UW ECE is proud to announce that Khushbu Patel (MSECE ‘26) and Kathryn Fehme (BSECE ‘26) have been selected to speak at this year's Graduation Ceremony.
Akira Ishimaru — A lifetime dedicated to engineering
UW ECE Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru spent 73 years at UW ECE focused on learning. His talent and hard work led to important contributions in the study of electromagnetic wave propagation, launched the careers of many of his students, and laid a foundation for the advanced technologies we rely on today.
UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu is part of a multi-organization team that has received a Climate Change AI Innovation Grant to develop machine learning datasets, which will enable fast, flexible, and accessible power systems planning in underserved communities in the Global South. Photo by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE[/caption]
Access to reliable electricity remains out of reach for millions of people across the Global South. At the same time, the worldwide transition to renewable energy is accelerating. Bridging this gap — ensuring that underserved communities can benefit from clean, reliable power — is one of the most important energy challenges today. To help address this issue, researchers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, or AI, to design faster, more accessible solutions.
Renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydropower, are being adopted at growing rates around the world. This shift offers clear benefits, from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to improving public health. But progress is uneven. Wealthier regions with established infrastructure are advancing quickly, while many lower-resource communities face significant barriers to deploying modern energy systems.
These challenges are especially pronounced in the Global South, which includes many countries across Africa, South America, and Asia. Expanding energy access in these regions often means reaching remote or underserved communities — an effort that requires careful planning, coordination, and innovation. With this in mind, governments, industry leaders, and engineers are forming new partnerships to design power systems that are not only sustainable, but also tailored to the specific needs of local communities.
“We’re trying to make power systems planning more accessible to people who are currently left out of the process. Power systems planning is how countries decide what power infrastructure to build, where, and when. It directly shapes whether or not communities get reliable, affordable, and clean electricity.” — UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu
UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu is working at the forefront of this effort. A member of the Clean Energy Institute and leader of the Interdisciplinary Energy Analytics for Society, or IDEAS, research group at the UW, Lukuyu focuses on developing sustainable, inclusive, and integrated energy systems for underserved communities. She is also part of a multi-organization team that recently received a Climate Change AI Innovation Grant — an award that supports the use of AI to address critical climate challenges.
The project funded by the award from Climate Change AI is one of just 12 selected from more than 400 applications representing 78 countries, underscoring both its significance and its global relevance. With this support, Lukuyu and her collaborators are developing machine learning datasets that will enable faster, more flexible, and more accessible power systems planning in lower-resource settings.
Why AI matters for energy planning
At the center of this work is machine learning, a branch of AI that allows computers to learn from data and make predictions. In the context of energy systems, machine learning can help planners quickly evaluate different scenarios — reducing the time and expertise required to design effective power networks.
Traditionally, power systems planning relies on complex optimization models that can take days to produce a single scenario and often require specialized technical knowledge. These constraints limit who can participate in planning processes and slow progress, particularly in regions where resources and expertise are limited.
“This grant is supporting work that sits at the intersection of two things that don’t always come together: cutting-edge machine learning research and the practical realities of energy planning in under-resourced contexts,” Lukuyu said. “A lot of sophisticated power systems modeling work never makes it out of the lab, and a lot of planning work in the Global South is constrained by the tools available. We’re trying to close that gap.”
Building smarter, more accessible tools
[caption id="attachment_41400" align="alignright" width="400"]
UW ECE doctoral student Ahana Mukherjee will be developing machine learning models that are optimized for power systems planning in the Global South. The models will be trained on the datasets Lukuyu’s team is curating. Photo courtesy of June Lukuyu.[/caption]
Lukuyu is collaborating on the project with Mohini Bariya, Joshua Adkins, and Genevieve Flaspohler from Rhiza Research, a nonprofit focused on identifying and addressing gaps in data, technology, and technical capacity in community-centered projects. The partnership combines expertise in power systems planning, machine learning, and applied research, along with strong connections to practitioners in the field.
Also contributing to the work is UW ECE doctoral student Ahana Mukherjee, who is co-advised by Lukuyu and Bariya. Mukherjee will develop machine learning models trained on the datasets the team is curating — datasets designed to serve as the foundation for faster and more user-friendly planning tools.
This effort builds on earlier work by Lukuyu, her IDEAS research group, and members of Rhiza Research. In a previous project funded by Climate Change AI, the team used machine learning to detect and localize power losses caused by malfunctioning equipment and overloaded distribution lines in Ghana. The goal of their approach was to help operators increase efficiency through precisely targeted interventions to address grid failures.
In the new project, the team is expanding that work by focusing on the datasets themselves — an essential building block for effective AI tools.
“The tools that exist today, both open source and commercial, are built on optimization models that can take days to run to come up with one planning scenario,” Lukuyu explained. “They also require significant technical expertise, which excludes many of the planners, researchers, and policymakers who need them most. We want to build something that’s simpler, faster, and computationally light — but still genuinely useful. And the foundation for that is curating a high-quality dataset.”
From research to real-world impact
[caption id="attachment_41404" align="alignright" width="400"]
This project builds on earlier work using machine learning to detect and localize power losses from faulty equipment and overloaded power lines in Ghana. The team is now focusing on improving datasets as a foundation for effective AI tools. Photo courtesy of the American Public Power Association.[/caption]
A key goal of the project is to ensure that these tools are not only developed, but also adopted. Lukuyu emphasizes the importance of collaboration among engineers, governments, nonprofits, utility companies, and energy developers — as well as meaningful input from the communities that these power systems are intended to serve.
Looking ahead, she plans to work closely with universities, practitioners, and community partners in the Global South to share knowledge and build capacity. By integrating these tools into academic and professional settings, the team hopes to expand who can participate in power systems planning.
“The transition to renewable energy needs to be a just transition,” Lukuyu said. “That means people need to be able to participate in the decisions that shape their energy systems. Right now, the complexity of planning tools is a barrier to that participation. If we can lower that barrier, we can open the door to a much broader set of voices.”
By making power systems planning more accessible, Lukuyu and her collaborators aim to help communities design energy systems that reflect their needs and priorities — ensuring that the benefits of the clean energy transition are shared more equitably around the world.
More information about UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu can be found on her UW ECE bio page and the IDEAS research group website.
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UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel was recently elected part of the 2026 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He joins the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Einstein, Jennifer Doudna, Barack Obama and more. Photo by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE[/caption]
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honor societies, has elected Shwetak Patel as part of its 2026 class of new members. Patel is the Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship Professor in UW ECE and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Allen School director and professor Magdalena Balazinska was also elected to the AAA&S this year. Chartered in 1780, the Academy recognizes exceptional individuals across academia, industry, the arts and more who examine new ideas and address issues of importance to both the nation and the world.
Patel is known for thinking outside the box by bringing together research in human-computer interaction (HCI) with ubiquitous computing and sensor-enabled embedded systems to advance new health and sustainability innovations.
“I’m humbled and honored to be inducted to the AAA&S. To see highly applied computing research celebrated at this level is so rewarding. I hope this serves as a catalyst for others to embrace a broader, more practical perspective on what computing can achieve for society,” said Patel, who is also associate director for development and entrepreneurship in the Allen School.
Many people carry around a smartphone in their pocket, and Patel’s research focuses on leveraging the device’s combined sensing, data processing and communication abilities to expand health care access. Patel, who directs the Allen School’s UbiComp Lab, has pioneered the ability to extract clinical grade signals using these everyday sensing devices to help users continuously monitor their health — which is especially helpful to those in low-resource settings. For example, he and his team developed the app FeverPhone that turns smartphones into thermometers and a smartphone-based glucose and prediabetes screening tool called GlucoScreen.
[caption id="attachment_41347" align="alignright" width="400"]
Patel has pioneered new ways of using the sensors built into smartphones for health screening, such as using the camera to gauge bilirubin levels.[/caption]
To help commercialize some of these technologies, Patel founded the mobile health diagnostics company Senosis Health, which was acquired by Google and is now a core part of Google’s consumer health efforts. In addition to his UW faculty position, Patel is Distinguished Scientist and Head of Health Technologies at the company, which developed multiple apps that could screen for various health conditions. These include an app that uses a smartphone’s accelerometer to detect osteoporosis and another that analyzes selfies to screen for pancreatic cancer through changes in the scleral color of a user’s eye.
"To see highly applied computing research celebrated at this level is so rewarding. I hope this serves as a catalyst for others to embrace a broader, more practical perspective on what computing can achieve for society."
— UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel
Another line of Patel’s research looks into using sensing technology to improve the health of the planet and tackle sustainability challenges. For example, he developed low-cost and easy-to-deploy sensor systems that could measure household energy consumption and help residents detect inefficiencies more effectively. Patel founded residential energy monitoring company Zensi, which was later acquired by Belkin, and he also co-founded the low-power wireless sensor platform company called SNUPI Technologies, which was acquired by Sears. More recently, he has helped reduce environmentally hazardous electronic waste by creating recyclable printed circuit boards and introduced AI models to help users better understand the environmental impact of everyday decisions.
“Shwetak’s work is deeply important, impactful, and incredibly creative,” said Jeff Dean (Ph.D., ‘96), chief scientist for Google DeepMind and Google Research. “He has an incredible record of research publication, entrepreneurship, and real-world impact. His health sensing research has been integrated into Google products used by more than one billion people. As a fellow American Academy of Arts & Sciences member, I am proud to see Shwetak’s induction.”
Patel’s election to the Academy is the latest in a string of accolades recognizing the wide-ranging impact of his work. He has also received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Award, World Economic Forum Young Global Scientist Award, NSF CAREER Award, National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
A Fellow of the ACM, Patel earned that organization’s ACM Prize in Computing for mid-career contributions to the field and was inducted into the SIGCHI Academy by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction.
Read more about the members of the 2026 class of members in the AAA&S announcement and a related UW News story.
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[post_title] => Congratulations, Class of 2026!
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Khushbu Patel (MSECE '26), at left, and Kathryn Fehme (BSECE '26), at right, will speak at this year's Graduation Ceremony, which will take place in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Wednesday, June 10, from 7 to 9 p.m.[/caption]
UW ECE is proud to announce that in addition to UW ECE alumnus Jared K. Jordan (BSEE ‘05), two students have been selected to speak at our 2026 Graduation Ceremony. Khushbu Patel (MSECE ‘26) will offer remarks on behalf of graduate students, and Kathryn Fehme (BSECE ‘26) will represent undergraduates. Patel and Fehme were selected for this honor because of their academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and service to the Department. This year’s Graduation Ceremony will take place in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Wednesday, June 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event will be presided over by UW ECE Professor and Chair Eric Klavins.
“We have two outstanding students from our graduating class speaking at this year’s Graduation Ceremony,” Klavins said. “Khushbu has done exemplary work in our Professional Master’s program while working full-time in aerospace engineering. Kathryn has excelled academically and in her internships while gaining hands-on project experience here at UW ECE. I’m very much looking forward to hearing what they both have to say.”
Learn more about both students below:
Graduate student speaker
Khushbu Patel
(MSECE ‘26)
[caption id="attachment_41082" align="alignright" width="575"]
Khushbu Patel (MSECE '26)[/caption]
Khushbu Patel is graduating from UW ECE’s Professional Master’s Program in electrical and computer engineering. She pursued her degree while working as an engineering leader at Gravitics, an aerospace startup designing and manufacturing space station modules. There, she leads multidisciplinary teams developing onboard systems, such as avionics and flight software, for space station technologies.
She has worked across the space industry, bridging the gap between simulation and flight operations for complex systems. Her previous roles at Virgin Orbit and Relativity Space focused on high-fidelity test systems, vehicle software, launch vehicle avionics, and critical life support technologies.
Khushbu’s passion for space began at an early age, leading her to an internship at NASA Johnson Space Center, followed by studies in aerospace engineering and computational sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She has since built a career dedicated to advancing humanity’s presence in space.
Beyond her technical work, Khushbu is passionate about mentorship. Through the UW ECE Industry Mentorship Program, Wired for Success, and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics, she has mentored students pursuing engineering pathways, with a focus on encouraging young women in STEM. After graduating, Khushbu hopes to continue building technologies that push humanity forward while helping others see a place for themselves in engineering and beyond.
Undergraduate student speaker
Kathryn Fehme
(BSECE ‘26)
[caption id="attachment_41084" align="alignright" width="575"]
Kathryn Fehme (BSECE '26)[/caption]
Kathryn Fehme is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. As a child, Fehme dreamed of becoming an engineer, which inspired her passion for aerospace and technical innovation. During her time at UW ECE, she specialized in control systems and hardware through internships and hands-on engineering experience. Her senior capstone project, completed in partnership with General Dynamics, was designing and building a 3D drone simulator in MATLAB using advanced control system concepts.
Fehme’s experiences in aerospace and engineering leadership shaped her passion for solving complex technical challenges while building strong professional communities. After two internships with Boeing, she will continue her career in Boeing’s flight test sector, working on sensors and signal conditioning while pursuing a dual master’s degree focused on electrical engineering and engineering leadership.
Beyond her technical work, Fehme is dedicated to mentorship and creating opportunities for future engineers. Through the Society of Women Engineers, where she served in the UW student chapter as vice president of corporate relations, she mentored fellow students and helped connect aspiring engineers with industry professionals through professional development, recruitment, and networking opportunities. After graduation, Fehme plans to remain involved with SWE and continue mentoring students pursuing careers in STEM.
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Article by Wayne Gillam / Graphic layout by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE News
If you have ever been in a plane that landed safely in a low-visibility thunderstorm or thick, heavy fog, you can thank UW ECE Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru. As one of the world’s top experts in electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering in random and turbulent media, his research has affected every aspect of modern life. Significant advancements in radar systems, microwave remote sensing, satellite and cellular communications, optical communications, astronomy, ultrasound imaging, and laser surgery were all made possible by his work.
Ishimaru retired from UW ECE as a professor emeritus in 1998, but he remained active as a researcher and educator until the end of his life. He passed away on November 10, 2025, at the age of 97. He was well-respected among his students, peers, and colleagues, and according to those who knew him well, he had an endless passion for his work. Ishimaru’s achievements are too numerous to list them all here. But illustrated below are key milestones from his life that reflect significant contributions he made to the field of electrical and computer engineering.
An outstanding researcher and educator
Ishimaru was born March 16, 1928, in Fukuoka, a city on the northern shore of Kyushu Island, Japan. At an early age, he showed an interest in and an aptitude for mathematics and physics. He attended the University of Tokyo, where in 1951, he earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. That same year, he was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and was accepted into the UW ECE (then UW EE) doctoral program.
“As a child, I was very much interested in science fiction, which appeared regularly in children’s magazines. There were always heroes who ran into great trouble, and then a scientist-engineer would come up with a great idea and a new device to save the good people from the bad ones. I made model airplanes run by rubber bands, and gliders. In those days, we had to start from scratch.”1
“In my middle school days, I liked algebra, geometry, physics, and English. We used a textbook patterned after old Euclid geometry, which I liked very much. It was just so beautiful to start with a few axioms and definitions and construct a whole body of geometry by logical argument.” 1
“I chose to study electrical engineering because mathematics and physics were very interesting to me, but I thought that electrical engineering had more applications and was even more interesting.” 2
He was the first student to receive a doctoral degree from UW ECE. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he worked at the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Tanashi, Tokyo, for several months before traveling to the United States in 1952 to join the brand-new UW EE doctoral program. He excelled at his studies, and in 1956, he worked for the summer as a technical staff member in the Bell Telephone Laboratory in Holmdel, New Jersey. In 1958, Ishimaru became the first student from the UW to earn a doctoral degree in electrical engineering.
“At that time, the United States was the top place to be, as far as science goes. All the interesting progress was in the United States, and so, it was very exciting.” 2
Ishimaru spent almost his entire career at UW ECE while being an active participant and leader in the engineering community worldwide. After receiving his doctoral degree, he was immediately hired by the Department as an assistant professor. In 1961, he was promoted to an associate professor, and he was a visiting associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1963 to 1964. In 1965, he became a full professor at UW ECE. In 1977, he accepted a joint appointment with the department of applied mathematics. In 1990, he received the Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Research from the UW College of Engineering, and in 1993, he was appointed Boeing Martin Professor. In 2011, the College bestowed its highest honor on Ishimaru — The Diamond Award for Distinguished Achievement in Academia.
In 1973, Ishimaru became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, an organization in which he was active and received many awards throughout his professional life. He also was heavily involved in the International Union of Radio Science (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale), known as URSI. In 2020, he was inducted as an URSI Lifetime Fellow.
“URSI and IEEE are both very important to me. In fact, I spent a good part of my life working with those two organizations.” 2
He was a prolific writer, publishing three books, more than 190 journal papers, and over 250 conference papers throughout his career. Ishimaru also was editor of the journal Radio Science from 1979 to 1983 as well as the founding editor of the journal Waves in Random Media (Institute of Physics, U.K.) and Waves in Random and Complex Media (Taylor and Francis, U.K.). He is perhaps best known for his two-volume textbook, “Wave Propagation and Scattering in Random Media.” This groundbreaking work marked a watershed moment as it was the first comprehensive text in the field to establish fundamental theoretical frameworks, bridge theory with practical applications, and unify diverse disciplinary approaches. It was published in 1978, translated into Russian in 1981, Chinese in 1986, reissued in 1997, and it came out in paperback in 2013.
“This book summarized many things I was studying. It contains a more analytical approach, but it also includes some experiments. To me, an analytical and an experimental approach are both important.”2
Ishimaru received many awards for his work as a researcher and educator, including some of the highest honors in engineering. In 1996, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He is one of only five faculty from UW ECE to ever receive this honor. In addition to being an IEEE Fellow and an URSI Lifetime Fellow, he was a fellow of the Optical Society of America (now Optica), the Acoustical Society of America, and the Institute of Physics. He received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984, and Distinguished Achievement Awards from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 1995 and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society in 1999. That year, he also received the IEEE Heinrich Hertz Medal for fundamental contributions to the study of electromagnetic waves and the URSI John Howard Dellinger Gold Medal for outstanding achievements in radio science. In 2000, he received the IEEE Third Millenium Medal, and in 2008, he was elected to the Washington State Academy of Science. In 2025, he was selected as one of the “Legends of Electromagnetics” by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.
“This is a great honor for me, and I am grateful to the Electrical Engineering Department, the College of Engineering, and the University of Washington for providing me with an environment where I could contribute to the engineering profession.” — Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru, in his 1996 acceptance speech to the National Academy of Engineering
Ishimaru retired from UW ECE as a professor emeritus, but he remained professionally active for many years afterwards. Over his long academic career, Ishimaru advised more than 40 doctoral students and supervised numerous graduate students across the electrical engineering and applied mathematics departments. And more than ten years after retiring, he had active research grants and continued to graduate one or two doctoral students per year.
His dedication was phenomenal. After he completed writing his third book at the age of 88, he turned his attention to current research in his field and developing a set of topics he could recommend to researchers for further study. In his early 90s, he gave keynote speeches and presentations on his recommendations. At the age of 93, he decided to study theoretical physics, aiming to combine those theories with his engineering experience and develop new practical applications that had not been considered before. His last project, started at the age of 97, but unfinished because of his passing, was a talk scheduled to be presented virtually at the 2026 National Radio Science Meeting. This presentation was intended to cover his views about the potential for new applications to be derived from concepts originally developed in theoretical physics by viewing those theories from a classical electromagnetics perspective.
On his 88th birthday, which is considered to be a significant birthday milestone in Japan, Ishimaru wrote these words:
“As I look back over 88 years of my life, I cannot help feeling thankful for how blessed my life has been. I officially retired in 1998 from the University of Washington after 40 years of teaching and research. However, I still go into the office and enjoy what I like most: research and talking with graduate students. I enjoy presenting my research at scientific meetings and writing papers. I serve on several committees of scientific organizations and serve as an editor of journals. I’ve had a wonderful life in retirement, and I often feel that now may be one of the best times of my life.” 1
Altogether, Ishimaru spent 73 years at UW ECE focused on learning — as a student, researcher, professor, and mentor. His talent and hard work led to important contributions in the study of electromagnetic wave propagation, launched the careers of many of his students, and laid a foundation for the advanced technologies we rely on today.
According to his son, John Ishimaru, his father’s incredible work ethic and dedication to his field stemmed from a deep curiosity that went well beyond the borders of engineering. He said that his father always encouraged people to go beyond comfortable boundaries, to not be afraid to explore new areas, and to be lifelong learners.
“My father’s sense of curiosity about the world, combined with an open-minded, unbiased approach toward learning, was part of what made him an open and understanding person in general,” John Ishimaru said. “Those qualities, combined with his kindness and caring and his principled beliefs, made him, along with my mother, the foundation of our family. His approach to living inspired us, and we are going to miss him every day.”
According to John Ishimaru, there were two small notes pasted on his father’s office door that were emblematic of his father’s life and legacy. They read:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” 1
“‘What is as important as knowledge?’ asked the mind. ‘Caring and seeing with the heart,’ answered the soul.” 1
A memorial service was held for Ishimaru on Saturday, November 29, 2025, in Bellevue, Washington. He is survived by his beloved wife of 69 years, Yuko; their four children John Ishimaru, Jane Riley (Chuck), Jim Ishimaru (Karen), and Joyce Walborn (Gene); his seven grandchildren Katie von Geldern (Will), Patricia Hurst (Chad), Andrew Ishimaru (Kirie), Eric Ishimaru (Anne Marie), Aaron Ishimaru, Ben Walborn (Natalie), and Emily Walborn; and his five great-grandchildren Grace Hurst, Olivia Hurst, Theo von Geldern, Niko von Geldern, and Maxwell Salazar-Walborn. He also leaves behind his younger brother Tohru and many other relatives in Japan.
If you would like to make a gift to UW ECE in memory of Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru, his family suggests donating to the Chair’s Fund for Excellence in Electrical & Computer Engineering. This fund supports Department programs and activities, including student activities for which state funds are not available. For more information, or to make a special donation, contact Sue Brennan in University Advancement.
__________________________________________________________________________
Photos were provided by the Ishimaru family, the University of Washington, and IEEE. Quotes from UW ECE Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru were lightly edited for this article. These quotes were provided by the Ishimaru family 1 and sourced from a 2025 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Legends of Electromagnetics interview.2
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[post_content] => By Wayne Gillam / UW ECE News
[caption id="attachment_41398" align="alignright" width="600"] UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu is part of a multi-organization team that has received a Climate Change AI Innovation Grant to develop machine learning datasets, which will enable fast, flexible, and accessible power systems planning in underserved communities in the Global South. Photo by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE[/caption]
Access to reliable electricity remains out of reach for millions of people across the Global South. At the same time, the worldwide transition to renewable energy is accelerating. Bridging this gap — ensuring that underserved communities can benefit from clean, reliable power — is one of the most important energy challenges today. To help address this issue, researchers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, or AI, to design faster, more accessible solutions.
Renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydropower, are being adopted at growing rates around the world. This shift offers clear benefits, from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to improving public health. But progress is uneven. Wealthier regions with established infrastructure are advancing quickly, while many lower-resource communities face significant barriers to deploying modern energy systems.
These challenges are especially pronounced in the Global South, which includes many countries across Africa, South America, and Asia. Expanding energy access in these regions often means reaching remote or underserved communities — an effort that requires careful planning, coordination, and innovation. With this in mind, governments, industry leaders, and engineers are forming new partnerships to design power systems that are not only sustainable, but also tailored to the specific needs of local communities.
“We’re trying to make power systems planning more accessible to people who are currently left out of the process. Power systems planning is how countries decide what power infrastructure to build, where, and when. It directly shapes whether or not communities get reliable, affordable, and clean electricity.” — UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu
UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu is working at the forefront of this effort. A member of the Clean Energy Institute and leader of the Interdisciplinary Energy Analytics for Society, or IDEAS, research group at the UW, Lukuyu focuses on developing sustainable, inclusive, and integrated energy systems for underserved communities. She is also part of a multi-organization team that recently received a Climate Change AI Innovation Grant — an award that supports the use of AI to address critical climate challenges.
The project funded by the award from Climate Change AI is one of just 12 selected from more than 400 applications representing 78 countries, underscoring both its significance and its global relevance. With this support, Lukuyu and her collaborators are developing machine learning datasets that will enable faster, more flexible, and more accessible power systems planning in lower-resource settings.
Why AI matters for energy planning
At the center of this work is machine learning, a branch of AI that allows computers to learn from data and make predictions. In the context of energy systems, machine learning can help planners quickly evaluate different scenarios — reducing the time and expertise required to design effective power networks.
Traditionally, power systems planning relies on complex optimization models that can take days to produce a single scenario and often require specialized technical knowledge. These constraints limit who can participate in planning processes and slow progress, particularly in regions where resources and expertise are limited.
“This grant is supporting work that sits at the intersection of two things that don’t always come together: cutting-edge machine learning research and the practical realities of energy planning in under-resourced contexts,” Lukuyu said. “A lot of sophisticated power systems modeling work never makes it out of the lab, and a lot of planning work in the Global South is constrained by the tools available. We’re trying to close that gap.”
Building smarter, more accessible tools
[caption id="attachment_41400" align="alignright" width="400"] UW ECE doctoral student Ahana Mukherjee will be developing machine learning models that are optimized for power systems planning in the Global South. The models will be trained on the datasets Lukuyu’s team is curating. Photo courtesy of June Lukuyu.[/caption]
Lukuyu is collaborating on the project with Mohini Bariya, Joshua Adkins, and Genevieve Flaspohler from Rhiza Research, a nonprofit focused on identifying and addressing gaps in data, technology, and technical capacity in community-centered projects. The partnership combines expertise in power systems planning, machine learning, and applied research, along with strong connections to practitioners in the field.
Also contributing to the work is UW ECE doctoral student Ahana Mukherjee, who is co-advised by Lukuyu and Bariya. Mukherjee will develop machine learning models trained on the datasets the team is curating — datasets designed to serve as the foundation for faster and more user-friendly planning tools.
This effort builds on earlier work by Lukuyu, her IDEAS research group, and members of Rhiza Research. In a previous project funded by Climate Change AI, the team used machine learning to detect and localize power losses caused by malfunctioning equipment and overloaded distribution lines in Ghana. The goal of their approach was to help operators increase efficiency through precisely targeted interventions to address grid failures.
In the new project, the team is expanding that work by focusing on the datasets themselves — an essential building block for effective AI tools.
“The tools that exist today, both open source and commercial, are built on optimization models that can take days to run to come up with one planning scenario,” Lukuyu explained. “They also require significant technical expertise, which excludes many of the planners, researchers, and policymakers who need them most. We want to build something that’s simpler, faster, and computationally light — but still genuinely useful. And the foundation for that is curating a high-quality dataset.”
From research to real-world impact
[caption id="attachment_41404" align="alignright" width="400"] This project builds on earlier work using machine learning to detect and localize power losses from faulty equipment and overloaded power lines in Ghana. The team is now focusing on improving datasets as a foundation for effective AI tools. Photo courtesy of the American Public Power Association.[/caption]
A key goal of the project is to ensure that these tools are not only developed, but also adopted. Lukuyu emphasizes the importance of collaboration among engineers, governments, nonprofits, utility companies, and energy developers — as well as meaningful input from the communities that these power systems are intended to serve.
Looking ahead, she plans to work closely with universities, practitioners, and community partners in the Global South to share knowledge and build capacity. By integrating these tools into academic and professional settings, the team hopes to expand who can participate in power systems planning.
“The transition to renewable energy needs to be a just transition,” Lukuyu said. “That means people need to be able to participate in the decisions that shape their energy systems. Right now, the complexity of planning tools is a barrier to that participation. If we can lower that barrier, we can open the door to a much broader set of voices.”
By making power systems planning more accessible, Lukuyu and her collaborators aim to help communities design energy systems that reflect their needs and priorities — ensuring that the benefits of the clean energy transition are shared more equitably around the world.
More information about UW ECE Assistant Professor June Lukuyu can be found on her UW ECE bio page and the IDEAS research group website.
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[caption id="attachment_41341" align="alignright" width="600"] UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel was recently elected part of the 2026 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He joins the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Einstein, Jennifer Doudna, Barack Obama and more. Photo by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE[/caption]
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honor societies, has elected Shwetak Patel as part of its 2026 class of new members. Patel is the Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship Professor in UW ECE and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Allen School director and professor Magdalena Balazinska was also elected to the AAA&S this year. Chartered in 1780, the Academy recognizes exceptional individuals across academia, industry, the arts and more who examine new ideas and address issues of importance to both the nation and the world.
Patel is known for thinking outside the box by bringing together research in human-computer interaction (HCI) with ubiquitous computing and sensor-enabled embedded systems to advance new health and sustainability innovations.
“I’m humbled and honored to be inducted to the AAA&S. To see highly applied computing research celebrated at this level is so rewarding. I hope this serves as a catalyst for others to embrace a broader, more practical perspective on what computing can achieve for society,” said Patel, who is also associate director for development and entrepreneurship in the Allen School.
Many people carry around a smartphone in their pocket, and Patel’s research focuses on leveraging the device’s combined sensing, data processing and communication abilities to expand health care access. Patel, who directs the Allen School’s UbiComp Lab, has pioneered the ability to extract clinical grade signals using these everyday sensing devices to help users continuously monitor their health — which is especially helpful to those in low-resource settings. For example, he and his team developed the app FeverPhone that turns smartphones into thermometers and a smartphone-based glucose and prediabetes screening tool called GlucoScreen.
[caption id="attachment_41347" align="alignright" width="400"] Patel has pioneered new ways of using the sensors built into smartphones for health screening, such as using the camera to gauge bilirubin levels.[/caption]
To help commercialize some of these technologies, Patel founded the mobile health diagnostics company Senosis Health, which was acquired by Google and is now a core part of Google’s consumer health efforts. In addition to his UW faculty position, Patel is Distinguished Scientist and Head of Health Technologies at the company, which developed multiple apps that could screen for various health conditions. These include an app that uses a smartphone’s accelerometer to detect osteoporosis and another that analyzes selfies to screen for pancreatic cancer through changes in the scleral color of a user’s eye.
"To see highly applied computing research celebrated at this level is so rewarding. I hope this serves as a catalyst for others to embrace a broader, more practical perspective on what computing can achieve for society."
— UW ECE and Allen School Professor Shwetak Patel
Another line of Patel’s research looks into using sensing technology to improve the health of the planet and tackle sustainability challenges. For example, he developed low-cost and easy-to-deploy sensor systems that could measure household energy consumption and help residents detect inefficiencies more effectively. Patel founded residential energy monitoring company Zensi, which was later acquired by Belkin, and he also co-founded the low-power wireless sensor platform company called SNUPI Technologies, which was acquired by Sears. More recently, he has helped reduce environmentally hazardous electronic waste by creating recyclable printed circuit boards and introduced AI models to help users better understand the environmental impact of everyday decisions.
“Shwetak’s work is deeply important, impactful, and incredibly creative,” said Jeff Dean (Ph.D., ‘96), chief scientist for Google DeepMind and Google Research. “He has an incredible record of research publication, entrepreneurship, and real-world impact. His health sensing research has been integrated into Google products used by more than one billion people. As a fellow American Academy of Arts & Sciences member, I am proud to see Shwetak’s induction.”
Patel’s election to the Academy is the latest in a string of accolades recognizing the wide-ranging impact of his work. He has also received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Award, World Economic Forum Young Global Scientist Award, NSF CAREER Award, National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
A Fellow of the ACM, Patel earned that organization’s ACM Prize in Computing for mid-career contributions to the field and was inducted into the SIGCHI Academy by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction.
Read more about the members of the 2026 class of members in the AAA&S announcement and a related UW News story.
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[post_title] => Congratulations, Class of 2026!
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[post_content] => [caption id="attachment_41079" align="alignright" width="575"] Khushbu Patel (MSECE '26), at left, and Kathryn Fehme (BSECE '26), at right, will speak at this year's Graduation Ceremony, which will take place in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Wednesday, June 10, from 7 to 9 p.m.[/caption]
UW ECE is proud to announce that in addition to UW ECE alumnus Jared K. Jordan (BSEE ‘05), two students have been selected to speak at our 2026 Graduation Ceremony. Khushbu Patel (MSECE ‘26) will offer remarks on behalf of graduate students, and Kathryn Fehme (BSECE ‘26) will represent undergraduates. Patel and Fehme were selected for this honor because of their academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and service to the Department. This year’s Graduation Ceremony will take place in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Wednesday, June 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event will be presided over by UW ECE Professor and Chair Eric Klavins.
“We have two outstanding students from our graduating class speaking at this year’s Graduation Ceremony,” Klavins said. “Khushbu has done exemplary work in our Professional Master’s program while working full-time in aerospace engineering. Kathryn has excelled academically and in her internships while gaining hands-on project experience here at UW ECE. I’m very much looking forward to hearing what they both have to say.”
Learn more about both students below:
Graduate student speaker
Khushbu Patel
(MSECE ‘26)
[caption id="attachment_41082" align="alignright" width="575"] Khushbu Patel (MSECE '26)[/caption]
Khushbu Patel is graduating from UW ECE’s Professional Master’s Program in electrical and computer engineering. She pursued her degree while working as an engineering leader at Gravitics, an aerospace startup designing and manufacturing space station modules. There, she leads multidisciplinary teams developing onboard systems, such as avionics and flight software, for space station technologies.
She has worked across the space industry, bridging the gap between simulation and flight operations for complex systems. Her previous roles at Virgin Orbit and Relativity Space focused on high-fidelity test systems, vehicle software, launch vehicle avionics, and critical life support technologies.
Khushbu’s passion for space began at an early age, leading her to an internship at NASA Johnson Space Center, followed by studies in aerospace engineering and computational sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She has since built a career dedicated to advancing humanity’s presence in space.
Beyond her technical work, Khushbu is passionate about mentorship. Through the UW ECE Industry Mentorship Program, Wired for Success, and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics, she has mentored students pursuing engineering pathways, with a focus on encouraging young women in STEM. After graduating, Khushbu hopes to continue building technologies that push humanity forward while helping others see a place for themselves in engineering and beyond.
Undergraduate student speaker
Kathryn Fehme
(BSECE ‘26)
[caption id="attachment_41084" align="alignright" width="575"] Kathryn Fehme (BSECE '26)[/caption]
Kathryn Fehme is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. As a child, Fehme dreamed of becoming an engineer, which inspired her passion for aerospace and technical innovation. During her time at UW ECE, she specialized in control systems and hardware through internships and hands-on engineering experience. Her senior capstone project, completed in partnership with General Dynamics, was designing and building a 3D drone simulator in MATLAB using advanced control system concepts.
Fehme’s experiences in aerospace and engineering leadership shaped her passion for solving complex technical challenges while building strong professional communities. After two internships with Boeing, she will continue her career in Boeing’s flight test sector, working on sensors and signal conditioning while pursuing a dual master’s degree focused on electrical engineering and engineering leadership.
Beyond her technical work, Fehme is dedicated to mentorship and creating opportunities for future engineers. Through the Society of Women Engineers, where she served in the UW student chapter as vice president of corporate relations, she mentored fellow students and helped connect aspiring engineers with industry professionals through professional development, recruitment, and networking opportunities. After graduation, Fehme plans to remain involved with SWE and continue mentoring students pursuing careers in STEM.
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Article by Wayne Gillam / Graphic layout by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE News
If you have ever been in a plane that landed safely in a low-visibility thunderstorm or thick, heavy fog, you can thank UW ECE Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru. As one of the world’s top experts in electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering in random and turbulent media, his research has affected every aspect of modern life. Significant advancements in radar systems, microwave remote sensing, satellite and cellular communications, optical communications, astronomy, ultrasound imaging, and laser surgery were all made possible by his work.
Ishimaru retired from UW ECE as a professor emeritus in 1998, but he remained active as a researcher and educator until the end of his life. He passed away on November 10, 2025, at the age of 97. He was well-respected among his students, peers, and colleagues, and according to those who knew him well, he had an endless passion for his work. Ishimaru’s achievements are too numerous to list them all here. But illustrated below are key milestones from his life that reflect significant contributions he made to the field of electrical and computer engineering.
An outstanding researcher and educator
Ishimaru was born March 16, 1928, in Fukuoka, a city on the northern shore of Kyushu Island, Japan. At an early age, he showed an interest in and an aptitude for mathematics and physics. He attended the University of Tokyo, where in 1951, he earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. That same year, he was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and was accepted into the UW ECE (then UW EE) doctoral program.
“As a child, I was very much interested in science fiction, which appeared regularly in children’s magazines. There were always heroes who ran into great trouble, and then a scientist-engineer would come up with a great idea and a new device to save the good people from the bad ones. I made model airplanes run by rubber bands, and gliders. In those days, we had to start from scratch.”1
“In my middle school days, I liked algebra, geometry, physics, and English. We used a textbook patterned after old Euclid geometry, which I liked very much. It was just so beautiful to start with a few axioms and definitions and construct a whole body of geometry by logical argument.” 1
“I chose to study electrical engineering because mathematics and physics were very interesting to me, but I thought that electrical engineering had more applications and was even more interesting.” 2
He was the first student to receive a doctoral degree from UW ECE. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he worked at the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Tanashi, Tokyo, for several months before traveling to the United States in 1952 to join the brand-new UW EE doctoral program. He excelled at his studies, and in 1956, he worked for the summer as a technical staff member in the Bell Telephone Laboratory in Holmdel, New Jersey. In 1958, Ishimaru became the first student from the UW to earn a doctoral degree in electrical engineering.
“At that time, the United States was the top place to be, as far as science goes. All the interesting progress was in the United States, and so, it was very exciting.” 2
Ishimaru spent almost his entire career at UW ECE while being an active participant and leader in the engineering community worldwide. After receiving his doctoral degree, he was immediately hired by the Department as an assistant professor. In 1961, he was promoted to an associate professor, and he was a visiting associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1963 to 1964. In 1965, he became a full professor at UW ECE. In 1977, he accepted a joint appointment with the department of applied mathematics. In 1990, he received the Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Research from the UW College of Engineering, and in 1993, he was appointed Boeing Martin Professor. In 2011, the College bestowed its highest honor on Ishimaru — The Diamond Award for Distinguished Achievement in Academia.
In 1973, Ishimaru became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, an organization in which he was active and received many awards throughout his professional life. He also was heavily involved in the International Union of Radio Science (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale), known as URSI. In 2020, he was inducted as an URSI Lifetime Fellow.
“URSI and IEEE are both very important to me. In fact, I spent a good part of my life working with those two organizations.” 2
He was a prolific writer, publishing three books, more than 190 journal papers, and over 250 conference papers throughout his career. Ishimaru also was editor of the journal Radio Science from 1979 to 1983 as well as the founding editor of the journal Waves in Random Media (Institute of Physics, U.K.) and Waves in Random and Complex Media (Taylor and Francis, U.K.). He is perhaps best known for his two-volume textbook, “Wave Propagation and Scattering in Random Media.” This groundbreaking work marked a watershed moment as it was the first comprehensive text in the field to establish fundamental theoretical frameworks, bridge theory with practical applications, and unify diverse disciplinary approaches. It was published in 1978, translated into Russian in 1981, Chinese in 1986, reissued in 1997, and it came out in paperback in 2013.
“This book summarized many things I was studying. It contains a more analytical approach, but it also includes some experiments. To me, an analytical and an experimental approach are both important.”2
Ishimaru received many awards for his work as a researcher and educator, including some of the highest honors in engineering. In 1996, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He is one of only five faculty from UW ECE to ever receive this honor. In addition to being an IEEE Fellow and an URSI Lifetime Fellow, he was a fellow of the Optical Society of America (now Optica), the Acoustical Society of America, and the Institute of Physics. He received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984, and Distinguished Achievement Awards from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 1995 and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society in 1999. That year, he also received the IEEE Heinrich Hertz Medal for fundamental contributions to the study of electromagnetic waves and the URSI John Howard Dellinger Gold Medal for outstanding achievements in radio science. In 2000, he received the IEEE Third Millenium Medal, and in 2008, he was elected to the Washington State Academy of Science. In 2025, he was selected as one of the “Legends of Electromagnetics” by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.
“This is a great honor for me, and I am grateful to the Electrical Engineering Department, the College of Engineering, and the University of Washington for providing me with an environment where I could contribute to the engineering profession.” — Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru, in his 1996 acceptance speech to the National Academy of Engineering
Ishimaru retired from UW ECE as a professor emeritus, but he remained professionally active for many years afterwards. Over his long academic career, Ishimaru advised more than 40 doctoral students and supervised numerous graduate students across the electrical engineering and applied mathematics departments. And more than ten years after retiring, he had active research grants and continued to graduate one or two doctoral students per year.
His dedication was phenomenal. After he completed writing his third book at the age of 88, he turned his attention to current research in his field and developing a set of topics he could recommend to researchers for further study. In his early 90s, he gave keynote speeches and presentations on his recommendations. At the age of 93, he decided to study theoretical physics, aiming to combine those theories with his engineering experience and develop new practical applications that had not been considered before. His last project, started at the age of 97, but unfinished because of his passing, was a talk scheduled to be presented virtually at the 2026 National Radio Science Meeting. This presentation was intended to cover his views about the potential for new applications to be derived from concepts originally developed in theoretical physics by viewing those theories from a classical electromagnetics perspective.
On his 88th birthday, which is considered to be a significant birthday milestone in Japan, Ishimaru wrote these words:
“As I look back over 88 years of my life, I cannot help feeling thankful for how blessed my life has been. I officially retired in 1998 from the University of Washington after 40 years of teaching and research. However, I still go into the office and enjoy what I like most: research and talking with graduate students. I enjoy presenting my research at scientific meetings and writing papers. I serve on several committees of scientific organizations and serve as an editor of journals. I’ve had a wonderful life in retirement, and I often feel that now may be one of the best times of my life.” 1
Altogether, Ishimaru spent 73 years at UW ECE focused on learning — as a student, researcher, professor, and mentor. His talent and hard work led to important contributions in the study of electromagnetic wave propagation, launched the careers of many of his students, and laid a foundation for the advanced technologies we rely on today.
According to his son, John Ishimaru, his father’s incredible work ethic and dedication to his field stemmed from a deep curiosity that went well beyond the borders of engineering. He said that his father always encouraged people to go beyond comfortable boundaries, to not be afraid to explore new areas, and to be lifelong learners.
“My father’s sense of curiosity about the world, combined with an open-minded, unbiased approach toward learning, was part of what made him an open and understanding person in general,” John Ishimaru said. “Those qualities, combined with his kindness and caring and his principled beliefs, made him, along with my mother, the foundation of our family. His approach to living inspired us, and we are going to miss him every day.”
According to John Ishimaru, there were two small notes pasted on his father’s office door that were emblematic of his father’s life and legacy. They read:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” 1
“‘What is as important as knowledge?’ asked the mind. ‘Caring and seeing with the heart,’ answered the soul.” 1
A memorial service was held for Ishimaru on Saturday, November 29, 2025, in Bellevue, Washington. He is survived by his beloved wife of 69 years, Yuko; their four children John Ishimaru, Jane Riley (Chuck), Jim Ishimaru (Karen), and Joyce Walborn (Gene); his seven grandchildren Katie von Geldern (Will), Patricia Hurst (Chad), Andrew Ishimaru (Kirie), Eric Ishimaru (Anne Marie), Aaron Ishimaru, Ben Walborn (Natalie), and Emily Walborn; and his five great-grandchildren Grace Hurst, Olivia Hurst, Theo von Geldern, Niko von Geldern, and Maxwell Salazar-Walborn. He also leaves behind his younger brother Tohru and many other relatives in Japan.
If you would like to make a gift to UW ECE in memory of Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru, his family suggests donating to the Chair’s Fund for Excellence in Electrical & Computer Engineering. This fund supports Department programs and activities, including student activities for which state funds are not available. For more information, or to make a special donation, contact Sue Brennan in University Advancement.
__________________________________________________________________________
Photos were provided by the Ishimaru family, the University of Washington, and IEEE. Quotes from UW ECE Professor Emeritus Akira Ishimaru were lightly edited for this article. These quotes were provided by the Ishimaru family 1 and sourced from a 2025 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Legends of Electromagnetics interview.2
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