New IEEE Fellow

Professor of Computer Science Usman A. Khan has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization.

A global network of over 486,000 engineering and STEM professionals across a variety of disciplines, IEEE seeks to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.  

The grade of fellow—awarded annually to fewer than one-tenth of voting members—recognizes unusual distinction in the profession and is reserved for a professional with an outstanding record of achievements in any of the fields of interest and whose work has “contributed importantly to the advancement or application of engineering, science, and technology, bringing the realization of significant value to society at large,” noted the announcement.

Khan was named to the IEEE Fellow Class of 2026 for contributions to optimization and localization in distributed stochastic settings, best described as the design and analysis of efficient methodologies for distributed learning and probabilistic modeling in large-scale artificial intelligence and physical systems. Examples include training deep neural networks and coordinating how teams of robots move and work collaboratively in complex, uncertain environments.

“I’m deeply honored and humbled to receive this recognition,” said Khan. “I’m very fortunate to have had exceptional mentors, students and collaborators, without whom it would not have been possible.”  

Prior to joining BC last year, Khan was a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University. He also holds a concurrent appointment as an Amazon Scholar with Amazon Robotics, a program designed for academics from universities worldwide who work on large-scale technical challenges while continuing to teach and conduct research at their respective universities.

“We’re proud to celebrate Usman’s election as an IEEE Fellow,” said George Mohler, the Daniel J. Fitzgerald Professor and chair of the Computer Science department. “This award recognizes his high-impact research at the intersection of optimization, robotics and artificial intelligence, and brings high-level visibility to the department. It’s an exciting achievement and we are grateful to have Usman as a colleague.”