Saien Xie

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Princeton Materials Institute

Research interests: Syntheses of thin film materials; electrical and optical characterizations of nanoscale devices.

A woman in a lab coat and safety goggles prepares to place a test tube into a machine for analysis. — As part of her research on lunar cement, Ph.D. student Sophia Bergen uses an optical emission spectrometer to measure the concentrations of different ions in a sample. Photo by Tori Repp/Fotobuddy

Innovation grants could help build a moon base, block food-borne illness, and map the brain

Junior Faculty Awards 2026 graphic.

Assistant professors honored for excellence with junior faculty awards

Saien Xie wins 2024 Packard Fellowship

Foam board with a pinned grasshopper specimen, with wings extended, and four rows with different colors and shapes of synthetic wings under investigation for flying robots. — A team led by Pierre-Thomas Brun and Aimy Wissa is studying the structures and capabilities of grasshopper wings and flying fish fins. An innovation grant will allow the researchers to test different types of foldable wings and model their performance. Photos by Tori Repp/Fotobuddy

Innovation funds support research in robotics, machine learning, climate resilience and more

Professor writes on white board while talking with grad student.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Improving human health, energy systems, computing and communications, and security

Researchers, dressed in white suits, work in "clean room" lab under yellow light.

Princeton Materials Institute

Multidisciplinary research driving advances in materials science and photonics