Khan Honored as IEEE Fellow

Adjunct Professor Usman Khan of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a competitive distinction recognizing his extraordinary contributions to optimization, control, and stochastic dynamical systems with applications in AI and machine learning. His work studies the math behind how systems make decisions, handle uncertainty, and adapt, which can improve capabilities such as how AI learns or how robots move.  

Khan, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University from 2011-2025 and now adjunct professor at Tufts and professor of computer science at Boston College, and Amazon Scholar with Amazon Robotics, has been recognized specifically for his contributions to optimization and localization in distributed stochastic settings. His research focuses on data and network science, systems and control, optimization theory and algorithms that can be applied to advance multi-agent robotics, driverless vehicles, smart-and-connected cities, and more. During his time as director of the Signal Processing and Robotic Networks laboratory at Tufts, he led hands-on projects, such as using drones to test wireless sensors or to monitor the integrity of bridges. His work brought hands-on, autonomous research experiences to undergraduate and graduate students at Tufts.  

Khan received his M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, both in electrical engineering. He has won numerous awards throughout his career, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, the 2024 Tufts Faculty Mentoring award, and the 2023 Tufts Innovator award.  

The IEEE is a global community for technologists founded in 1963, now with over 500,000 members around the globe. Recognition as an IEEE fellow is a highly competitive distinction—awarded to 0.1% of IEEE voting members annually—honoring those with an outstanding record of accomplishments that have significantly contributed to the advancement of engineering and technology.