Prof. XIE Zhiyao Gained ACM SIGDA Outstanding New Faculty Award 2026

Prof. XIE Zhiyao, Assistant Professor of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, received the ACM SIGDA Outstanding New Faculty Award 2026 at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) 2026, which was held in Long Beach, California, on July 26-29. He is the first recipient from a Hong Kong tertiary institution to receive this highly competitive award since it was first presented in 2000.

Conferred to only one awardee worldwide each year, the ACM SIGDA Outstanding New Faculty Award recognizes a junior faculty member early in their academic career who demonstrates outstanding potential as an educator and or researcher in the field of electronic design automation. Eligible candidates must have completed at least one full academic year and no more than four and a half full academic years in a tenure-track position.

Prof. Xie’s research focuses on AI-assisted electronic design automation and chip design methodologies. He joined HKUST in 2022 after completing his PhD in Computing Engineering at Duke University in the same year.