u/Electrical_Lion_4741

Hey all, hoping to get some honest perspectives on my profile before I commit to filing.

Background:

• Currently a PhD candidate (U.S.) in Electrical Engineering, focus on ML & Hardware Security (final years)
• Two master's degrees from European universities
• Industry experience at a major semiconductor company's research division (outside the U.S.)
• 5 peer-reviewed papers (first-authored tier-1 journal & conference papers)
• Current research supported by NSF

PE: Benchmarking large systems-on-chip to help the research community develop more robust detectors. Still refining the framing.

What I'm unsure about:

• Citation count is modest (~10)
• Not sure how strong the "national importance" angle reads — hardware security ties into supply chain / critical infrastructure, but I don't want to oversell it
• Whether the proposed endeavor is concrete enough, or if I need to tighten it before filing

For anyone who's been through NIW recently — does this look like a realistic profile nowadays? What would you want to see strengthened before filing? Any red flags?

Would you go with the Chen deal (no refund) or EP route (free refile)?

Thanks in advance.