The Purdue University College of Engineering is recognizing the remarkable achievements of 38 young alumni. These individuals made the 38x38 list for 2025. Honorees are 38 years or younger, are trailblazers in their respective fields, and have demonstrated a clearly accelerated trajectory of professional success, achievements and impact.

Three alumni of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering made the list – David Hartmann (BSEE 2010), Gusmantara Ekamukti Himawan (BSEE 2007), and Lu Wang (PhD ECE 2014).

David Hartmann, Commander, United States Navy

Of all Dave Hartmann's achievements in the U.S. Navy, he is most proud of the impact he made through the Navy's Early Command Program. In 2021, he was among a small number of high-performing junior officers elevated to commanding officer - the highest position of leadership onboard a Navy ship - years ahead of the standard selection process. While deployed to the Gulf of Oman, he and his crew aboard the USS Chinook seized 2,116 assault rifles and destroyed 170+ tons of high explosives headed to rebel fighters in Yemen. They also confiscated 560 kg of illegal drugs from a vessel that set itself on fire when its crew spotted the Chinook approaching. For their extraordinary work, the ship's sailors received several awards, including the Navy Expeditionary Medal and the 2022 Battle Efficiency Award. Individually, Hartmann was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, complementing several other decorations from other points in his career.

Early promotion has been a common theme in Hartmann's career. In 2016, he was selected as a Warfare Tactics Instructor, analogous to the naval flight community's better-known TOP GUN program. In 2018, he was elevated to lieutenant commander and selected for "merit reorder" - meaning he was designated a top 15% performer and promoted a year ahead of most of his peers. Only 10% of Navy officers command a ship in their career; far fewer command multiple ships. In 2023, Hartmann was promoted to commander, a year sooner than most, and chosen to command again - this time on a larger ship, the USS Savannah, with a bigger crew. He will assume command in San Diego in the summer of 2027 after 18 months as the executive officer.

Gusmantara Ekamukti Himawan, Managing Director, Xurya Daya Indonesia

Coal contributes 66%+ of Indonesia's electricity production, prompting Gusmantara Ekamukti Himawan to co-found Xurya Daya Indonesia. The company is dedicated to helping Indonesia's commercial and industrial sectors transition seamlessly to solar energy. Himawan, who serves as managing director, is developing a zero-investment business model that enables firms to make the switch without upfront costs. By making solar energy more accessible and financially viable, Xurya is reducing carbon footprints, contributing to a cleaner, more resilient energy future, supporting Indonesia's decarbonization goals, and shifting the country's mindset toward sustainability. Further, Himawan's contributions have positioned the company as a pioneer in business model innovation, IoT (Internet of Things)-enabled monitoring, and industry ecosystem development.

As of 2024, Xurya has opened up 100MW+ of operational solar capacity across 200+ projects, retained 100+ companies as clients, and built a 100% local workforce with more than 100 employees across four major cities. The company has generated 164 million kWh of clean energy annually, reducing 146,645 tons of CO emissions, which is equivalent to planting 1.97 million trees over 10 years. Also, Xurya has secured $88 million in funding and has achieved B Corp certification, reinforcing its commitment to high social and environmental standards. And, Xurya has been recognized by Forbes Asia's "100 to Watch 2023" and by G20 Digital Innovation Network as a top 2022 startup.

Himawan credits Purdue for his global mindset, adding that collaborative projects with international peers and access to a diverse network were invaluable in helping him navigate cross-cultural collaborations and expanding his perspectives.

Lu Wang, Senior Staff Engineering Manager, Google

Lu Wang has spearheaded multiple strategic and high-impact initiatives that have enabled features across major device platforms and products at Google. She has rapidly advanced from engineer to her current position of senior staff engineering manager. Her core innovation is democratizing access to on-device machine learning (ODML) and GenAI, making those technologies accessible to both Google product teams and external developers. She initiated and delivered the company's first on-device GenAI capabilities, leading to the successful production of ODML across Android, Chrome, and ChromeOS. Her team's work has empowered more than 100 Google product features, thousands of third-party applications, millions of monthly downloads, and billions of total Android installs - making ODML creation and deployment accessible at scale.

When GenAI arose in early 2023, she founded a pioneering work group to explore running large language models (LLMs) on mobile accelerators (CPU, GPU, and NPU). Despite early skepticism, her leadership enabled Google to achieve industry-first on-device GenAI features in text and image generation in products including Gemini Nano and Android and Chrome, Gemma and Open-weights models on LiteRT-LM, Juno Nano and ChromeOS and Pixel. Her earlier work, MediaPipe Solutions, has been adopted by major companies like Walmart, Chase and Best Buy. The LiteRT framework, she now drives, is a cornerstone of Google's ODML strategy addressing critical industry demands for on-device ML & Gen AI model deployment.

Wang is a skilled cross-functional collaborator, aligning efforts across 20+ teams and 100+ engineers and 10+ industry partners. She is also a recognized thought leader sharing her expertise through talks and keynotes at more than 10 premier developer events and at every Google I/O event in the last 10 years.

Source: 2025 38x38 Recipients