UCLA Computer Science Professor Jason Cong received the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Grainger College of Engineering Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. This prestigious award recognizes alumni who have made exceptional contributions to engineering through impactful research, entrepreneurship, and service.
Cong is honored “for impactful research and entrepreneurial work on electronic design automation, quantum and customized computing, FPGA, and highly scalable algorithms.” A renowned figure in the field of computing, Cong has long been at the forefront of innovations that bridge academic research and industry applications, particularly in the areas of hardware acceleration and reconfigurable computing.
The 2025 seven outstanding UICU alumni awardees include a university president, a U.S. Air Force Major General, and several industry leaders and entrepreneurs whose work spans clean energy, networking, security, and semiconductor technologies. The full list of recipients and their achievements can be found on the Grainger College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Awards page.
Cong received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UIUC in 1990. He currently serves as the Volgenau Chair for Engineering Excellence at UCLA and is the director of the Center for Domain-Specific Computing. He is also a co-founder of multiple successful tech startups, including AutoESL Design Technologies (acquired by Xilinx) and Falcon Computing Solutions (acquired by AMD), further exemplifying his impact on both academia and industry.
This award is a testament to Cong’s commitment to advancing the state of computing and mentoring the next generation of engineers.