Advancing Inventive Research Through the PhD Program
YuXuan Sun, E’25, computer engineering, and PhD’30, electrical engineering, found a passion for electrical and computer engineering after taking a course in his first year at Northeastern. Now graduated with his bachelor’s degree, Sun is continuing his education as a PhD student at the Sonmezoglu Research Lab and immersed in research he finds extremely fascinating.
YuXuan Sun recently graduated in May 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Northeastern University. When Sun began his academic career at Northeastern, he was in a non-engineering degree program. However, after taking an electrical and computer engineering course and finding the material fascinating, Sun switched his major to computer engineering. Sun was intrigued by the problem-solving and logic skills needed to understand the coursework and wanted to investigate the subject further by taking more courses.
During Sun’s undergraduate studies, he participated in two amazing co-op experiences. One co-op in particular impacted Sun’s future career aspirations and influenced him to pursue an advanced degree. Through Sun’s co-op experience at the Sonmezoglu Research Lab with Assistant Professor Soner Sonmezoglu, he has found a strong passion for research and development, leading him to his pursuit of a PhD in electrical engineering at Northeastern. Sun began his PhD program this Fall at the Sonmezoglu Research Lab, and he is excited to continue his ongoing work in an area of research that fuels his enthusiasm.
Co-op Experience
Sun’s first co-op experience was at Insulet, a medical device company that developed the “Omnipod” an insulin delivery medical device for individuals with diabetes. As an electrical engineer at Insulet, his day-to-day responsibilities mainly included coding the product status updating system, testing and file management. At Insulet, Sun gained valuable knowledge about the engineering industry and strengthened his coding skills. The skills Sun acquired while working at Insulet set him up to succeed in his second co-op experience at the Sonmezoglu Lab.
Sun decided he wanted to explore the research and development side of the engineering industry, which is why he chose a research co-op for his second co-op experience. When he heard about the Sonmezoglu Lab, Sun was immediately intrigued by the work of Professor Sonmezoglu and his lab. The Sonmezoglu Lab specializes in creating electrical, mechanical and optical devices that can be integrated into the human body.
As a co-op, Sun worked on a few different exciting projects. The main project he contributed to was programming an FPGA circuit in order for it to process signals. He also helped in developing a technology that could detect the frequency of signals, as well as using that technology to decode specific signals to obtain the information inside of them. Sun had the responsibility of building that system, which would be used for a photonic device.
After his co-op was completed, Sun continued to work at the Lab and aid in the research. Towards the end of his undergraduate studies, Professor Sonmezoglu offered Sun an opportunity to stay at the lab as his PhD student, and Sun gladly accepted.
Research Opportunity
Sun also worked as a part-time research assistant at Harvard University in the Lichtman Lab. The Lichtman Lab focuses on researching the changes in neural connectivity as animals age and develop. Sun’s role in the lab consisted of completing neural cell recording. Sun appreciated this research opportunity as a chance to explore research in a different subject area. This developed Sun’s research skills further and expanded his knowledge base.
Future Perspectives
Sun’s research endeavors have inspired his future career path and where it could lead. He enjoys the investigative nature of research and development and the challenges he must overcome with creative problem-solving. This is primarily why Sun has decided to continue his academic journey at Northeastern in the electrical engineering PhD program. Sun is grateful to enrich his understanding and continue working on his research, as well as develop more innovative solutions and devices.
After completing his PhD, Sun is interested in remaining in academia, working as a professor. What most captivates Sun is a chance to work on his own research and to teach and mentor students in electrical and computer engineering. Sun is just starting his PhD program and has a couple of years to go, but he is excited for the journey and for all of the knowledge and skills he will acquire throughout his program.