IEEE Honors Ambarella CEO Dr. Fermi Wang With Inaugural 2026 Award

IEEE honored Ambarella co-founder, President and CEO Dr. Fermi Wang with the inaugural 2026 IEEE Arun N. Netravali Video Analytics, Technology and Systems Award. The recognition placed Wang alongside his Ph.D. advisor, Professor Dimitris Anastassiou of Columbia Engineering.

IEEE’s award was established in 2026 to honor Arun Netravali, former ninth president of Bell Laboratories (now Nokia Bell Labs) and a contributor to video technology. The award recognizes advancements in video technology, AI-powered systems, and analytics.

Ambarella said it has developed a physical AI platform that integrates systems-on-a-chips with AI accelerators, image and video encoding, image signal processing and other system functions. The release also described an installed base of more than 42 million AI SoC units and a platform spanning silicon and programmable software to AI agentic frameworks for perception, decision-making and control across devices.

Ambarella’s announcement tied the IEEE recognition to Wang’s role at the company and to work developing video and AI processing capabilities. It also referenced applications for its products across edge endpoint and edge infrastructure use cases including physical security, vehicle safety, telematics, autonomy, portable video, aerial drones, and other emerging robotic applications.