Zhaohui Yang, assistant professor at the College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering at Zhejiang University, has been named to MIT Technology Review’s 2026 Innovators Under 35 (TR35) Asia Pacific list, the magazine announced on September 14.
Yang was recognized for work that moves wireless networks beyond simple information transmission toward learning, computing, and decision-making alongside AI. At Zhejiang University, he leads research on intelligent communication-computing systems, with a focus on wireless large models, edge learning, and holographic communications.
His group established a theoretical link between wireless transmission errors and the convergence of distributed learning, and designed communication-computing scheduling mechanisms based on that relationship. One method reduced system latency by 67% and improved AI accuracy by 10% under the same latency constraint; a parallel communication-computing scheme raised collaboration efficiency by more than 40% while lowering system energy consumption. The team has since extended its work into semantic communications, fluid antennas, and integrated sensing-communication-computing, areas aimed at enabling 6G networks to dynamically adjust antenna positions and prioritize the information AI systems actually need.
Yang has authored more than 60 papers in journals including IEEE JSAC and IEEE TWC, with five ESI hot papers and 20 highly cited papers, and has received over 20,000 Google Scholar citations. His honors include the first National New Era Youth Pioneer Award, the IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award (the sole global recipient in its award year), five best paper awards, and a gold medal at the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition as first supervising instructor.
TR35 Asia Pacific was launched in 2014. Over 12 years, the regional list has recognized 255 innovators working across artificial intelligence and robotics, nanotechnology and materials, biotechnology and medicine, energy and sustainability, and computer and electronic hardware.
