{"id":27151,"date":"2025-12-11T15:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/engineering\/?p=27151"},"modified":"2025-12-11T15:22:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:22:03","slug":"yi-is-the-latest-uwm-faculty-member-to-be-named-a-fellow-of-the-national-academy-of-inventors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/engineering\/yi-is-the-latest-uwm-faculty-member-to-be-named-a-fellow-of-the-national-academy-of-inventors\/","title":{"rendered":"Yi is the latest 51ÁÔÆæ faculty member to be named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alex Yasha Yi, a professor of electrical engineering and Director of Research at 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Connected Systems Institute<\/a>, has been elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors\u2014one of the highest honors an academic inventor can receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a distinction reserved for people whose ideas don\u2019t just live in labs and journals\u2014they turn into technologies that reshape industries, improve lives, and spark economic growth. Yi\u2019s career does exactly that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yi joins a cohort of only 2,253 Fellows worldwide, representing more than 300 prestigious universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His research spans intelligent electronics, devices that power artificial intelligence, and next-generation optoelectronic technologies designed to make energy systems smarter and more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his career, Yi has secured 34 issued patents, including 18 in the U.S. Many of these inventions have been licensed by major international energy companies, generating more than $300 million in revenue. He is also a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
This visually striking wafer showcases the future of AI hardware\u2014a photonic compute platform built with next-generation nanofabrication and advanced packaging technologies. The vivid diffraction patterns come from thousands of integrated optical phased arrays and metasurface elements, highlighting the density and sophistication of the chip-scale photonic architecture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nominators say Yi\u2019s inventions have the potential to transform multiple fields. Among them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n