Synergistic Activities and Outreach
Outreach actvities Connected to the Science Academy STEM Magnet, North Hollywood
With support from the student chapter of the Materials Research Society (MRS) at UCLA, we have been actively engaging with middle and high school students from the Science Academy STEM Magnet in North Hollywood. This public school provides a seven-year, college-preparatory program focused on integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with a special emphasis on nurturing highly gifted students. As part of our outreach, we delivered a “Science Academy STEM Talk” in Spring 2024 to over 400 students, which was met with great enthusiasm. The talk introduced quantum mechanics and its applications in everyday technologies, accompanied by demonstrations of quantum phenomena. During Summer 2024, our group also hosted two student interns from the school, who gained hands-on experience with first-principles calculations and machine learning techniques. Their research experiences are now being compiled into a research manual to be shared with other interested students at the high school.
USACM Workshop on Data Driven and Computational Modeling of Materials Across Scales
We led the the effort in organizing a workshop on "Data-Driven and Computational Modeling of Materials across Scales", that was held at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), located at the University of California, Los Angeles, during the dates May 10 – 12, 2023. The event was held under the auspices of the US Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM), as a thematic workshop in the Technical Thrust Area (TTA) on Nanotechnology and Lower Scale Phenomena. The workshop covered various aspects of materials modeling across length and time scales — including data-driven and computational approaches, various materials features and phenomena, multiscale methods and materials design.
Specific thrust areas of the workshop included: 1) machine learning approaches to problems in the mechanics of materials, 2) mechanics and physics of low-dimensional materials (nanomaterials – 0D, 1D and 2D materials), 3) multiscale physics/mechanics of coarse-graining, 4) multiscale design of materials and inverse problems, and 5) defects and interfaces. Over the course of two-and-a-half days, the workshop brought together experts to discuss recent advances in the aforementioned fields and featured invited oral presentations, short "lightning talks" and poster presentations, and panel discussions. The workshop report and video recordings of the talks can be found here.
The workshop received financial support from the National Science Foundation under award #2325413 (CMMI-MOMS program).