Faculty Research
Faculty Research
We promote discovery, inquiry and creative opportunities through mentored research experiences for graduate and undergraduate students.
Faculty at NC State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering are leveraging AI to transform materials discovery and design. Their work spans self-driving laboratories for automated experiments, AI-driven data fusion and integration, discovery and optimization of material properties, and the development of knowledge hubs. Focus areas include energy harvesting technologies, biomimetic materials, sustainable materials, colloidal and nanomaterials, and organic electronics, all aimed at accelerating innovation and addressing global challenges in materials science.
Faculty in this area
- Dr. Yaroslava G. Yingling
- Utilizes AI to integrate, fuze, and heterogeneous materials data, enabling the design of soft, sustainable, and biomimetic materials and the creation of interactive materials knowledge hubs.
- Dr. Martin Seifrid
- A pioneer of self-driving laboratories—automated systems guided by machine learning—to accelerate the discovery of organic materials with controlled structures and functions, focusing on applications like energy storage and neuromorphic computing.
- Drs. Douglas Irving and Donald Brenner
- Leverages AI for predictive modeling to enhance materials performance. Together, their work pushes the boundaries of materials science, driving faster discoveries and enabling innovative solutions through the power of AI.
- Dr. Aram Amassian
- Combines AI and robotics to uncover formulation-process-structure-property relationships in semiconductor materials, advancing energy harvesting technologies like perovskite photovoltaics.
As computational power has increased, modeling of material behavior has replaced the time-consuming process of trial and error. Our researchers have discovered formerly unknown properties of materials as well as invented new ones.
Faculty in this area
Materials with novel and controlled electronic, optical, and magnetic properties have widespread applications, including computers, lighting, sensors, medicine, and sustainability. Research in electronic, optical, and magnetic materials includes processing techniques for obtaining materials with controlled compositions and structures, characterization, and applications of these materials.
Faculty in this area
The need for sustainable, secure, and efficient energy is one of the great engineering challenges of our time. Materials are the limiting components of nearly all advanced energy technologies. Research in this area focuses on the understanding of the structure, property, and processing of materials for such applications as solar cells and lithium-ion batteries.
Faculty in this area
Developing new materials requires characterizing their structure across a range of length scales ranging from macro to atomic. One must explore the relevant length scale structures and chemical fluctuations at each scale to understand structure-property relationships. Research in this area focuses on developing new techniques to make the most of every scattering electron or X-ray, explaining the properties of new materials, and understanding how new properties can emerge from old materials through modifying their micro- and nano-structure features.
Faculty in this area
Research in this area addresses the relationship between the structure and function of soft and biomaterials. Scope includes Antibacterial and antimicrobial materials; Bioaerosols; Biocatalysis; (bio)Polymers; Biofouling and antifouling; Biomimetic materials; Biomolecular sensing; Drug delivery and targeting; Nanoparticles; Photodynamic therapy; Self-healing materials; and Sustainable biomaterials.
Faculty in this area
The demands placed on structural material performance are constantly increasing across application areas including transportation, power generation, and defense. This area of research is focused on the structure-processing-property relationships in materials for load-bearing applications. These materials must retain their mechanical properties in extreme environments even as the allowed weight, costs, and energy inputs decrease