Team Led by Professor Mohammad Hafezi wins UMD Invention of the Year

A team led by Professor Mohammad Hafezi has won a 2026 University of Maryland Invention of the Year Award. Their project, titled, Topological Photonics Architectures for Optical Computing and Artificial Intelligence (TOPAI), was the top finalist in the Quantum Technology Category.

Team members included Supratik Sarkar (ECE Ph.D. Candidate), Mahmoud Jalali Mehrabad (former UMD postdoc in Physics, currently research scientist at MIT), Lida Xu (Physics Ph.D. Candidate), and Zhi-Yuan Wei (Post-doctoral researcher).

TOPAI addresses challenges facing AI systems, particularly the power and heat needed to generate the systems which affects their ability to scale. The novel approach taken with this research is using light instead of electricity to power the computing strength of AI. Using fault tolerant light-based computation, traditionally electricity-dependent photonic and electronic processors are better able to overcome scalability, stability and noise sensitivity.

By developing a system that is faster, cooler and more resilient, TOPAI provides a new avenue for future optical AI accelerators and quantum inspired computing systems. The combination of high bandwidth with intrinsic resilience will assist in overcoming environmental noise and imperfections in fabrication.

A provisional US patent for TOPAI was filed in 2026. More information on the work that the photonic architecture is based on can be found here: https://jqi.umd.edu/news/passive-approach-new-chips-reliably-unlock-color-conversion

Published May 20, 2026