2025 Robert S. Hilbert Memorial Optical Design Competition Winners
We are thrilled to announce that five exceptional students from the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona have been named winners in the prestigious 2025 Robert S. Hilbert Memorial Optical Design Competition, hosted by Synopsys. This national competition recognizes outstanding student projects in optical design using Synopsys software tools such as CODE V and LightTools.
Award-winning students include:
- Mason Cipollini
- Lukas Vaiciunas
- Jesus Serratos
- Jacob Krell
- Yuanyuan Sun
Their innovative work ranged from advanced telescope systems to biomedical imaging solutions, showcasing the depth and diversity of optical engineering talent cultivated at the Wyant College.
Mason Cipollini, who collaborated on a monolithic telescope design, shared: “"With the completion of our design, we anticipated that its miniaturization and simple manufacturing would offer great value to small-scale optics. We are very pleased to see that Synopsys recognized this value and look forward to seeing how the monolithic telescope may be used in the future."
Lukas Vaiciunas added: “My amazing team members and I had so much fun with this project and can’t wait to see where optics take us!”
Yuanyuan Sun, whose project focused on illumination optimization, commented: “I want to thank my supervisor, Prof. Rongguang Liang for the guidance to identify potential problem in the system.”
These awards not only reflect the students’ individual brilliance but also highlight the Wyant College’s commitment to fostering innovation, hands-on learning, and excellence in optical sciences.
Congratulations to all our winners for their remarkable achievements! If you’d like to learn more or read about the competition and the winning projects, visit this link.