Fierce Electronics proudly announces its third group of honorees in the inaugural 40 Under 40 awards program. These awards are timed with the 40th anniversary of Sensors Converge being held June 24-26 in Santa Clara, CA.
The Fierce Electronics 40 Under 40 recognizes individuals under 40 who are driving advancements in technology, pushing boundaries and shaping the future of electronics with their creativity, expertise and impact. Additional honorees will be named each week in Fierce Electronics in no particular order.
The entire class will honored at Sensors Converge 2025, celebrating its 40th anniversary June 24-26 in Santa Clara, CA.
Kishan Joshi
Age 34
Analog Manager
Intel
Kishan Joshi has contributed to electrical engineering and leadership in power management design. He earned his MS and PhD from Arizona State University by 2020, and has since worked at Intel designing fully integrated voltage regulators. Earlier he was at Texas Instruments and held internships at NXP and Kilby Labs. His expertise spans low-power analog design, power converters, and supply ripple rejection, skills honed since his early career at Sankalp Semiconductors. Joshi’s influence extends beyond industry—he’s a peer reviewer for IEEE journals and an Associate Editor for TPEL. He is Regional Chair for IEEE PELS Region 4-6, Vice-Chair of the Santa Clara Valley Section (2025) and Vice-Chair of the SFBAC PELS Chapter while also serving in the PELS TC-2 and TC-10.
Arnav Malawade
Senior AI Engineer
Volkswagen
Age 29
Dr. Arnav Malawade leads at a team of AI engineers at Volkswagen in Belmont, California. They are designing ways to solve L4 autonomous driving challenges such as driving functionality, simulation, data management and fleet operations. His work includes identifying research trends in AI and ML as he works with partners and external companies. Prior experience has included internships at Amazon Web Services and HRL Laboratories. Arnav holds a PhD in electrical and computer engineering at UC Irvine where his thesis focused on Context-Aware and Energy-Efficient Autonomous Systems. He led a team developing real-time vehicle safety systems, CAN bus networking and telemetry for the UC Irvine Formula SAE electric racecar for three years.
Zengyi (Boltzmann) Li
Age 30
Founder and Chief Scientist
Aizip
Dr. Zengyi (Boltzmann) Li is chief scientist at Aizip and a TinyML pioneer. He invented the Zenet deep neural network, a compact AI model with under 200,000 parameters, matching larger models’ performance. His work with Bosch sensors achieved 90dB noise reduction, earning Aizip a 2024 Product Innovation Award. Dr. Li’s Zenet-mini, with just 4ms latency, enhances audio for hearing loss patients, while his innovations in keyword spotting, speaker ID, and dereverberation run efficiently on low-cost chips, powering over one million units monthly. Leading next-gen projects like AI music separation and edge-based conversational AI, Dr. Li’s contributions revolutionize audio tech globally.