Research Group
Teresa Davies
Teresa joined the group in May 2006. She is a senior majoring in Electrical Engineering and she has been working on the structure optimization problem for several low-dimensional nanoscale systems.
Bhavin Jariwala
Bhavin pursues his PhD in Chem. Eng. and is coadvised with Prof. Agarwal.
His work is focused on molecular dynamics simulations or amorphous surfaces
and thin films, synthesis of amorphous carbon, and advanced surface
characterization.
Keith Hellman
Keith is a PhD candidate in Computer Science coadvised with Prof. Mehta.
His work focuses on developing new evolutionary techniques for structural
optimization based on applying dynamic learning concepts that improve
the control over the acceptance rate of crossover operations.
Timothy Thayer
(BSc 2008, Eng.-Civil) Tim has studied the indentation of ceramic nanowires
laid down on a substrate. He calculated the contact stiffness for realistic
contact geometries realized between atomic force microscopy tips and AlN
nanowires with triangular shapes. Tim coauthored a paper recently submitted
to Nanotechnology.
Damon Lytle
(BSc 2007, Metallurgical and Materials Eng.) Damon has started to work on the
atomic structure of the Si(103) surface during a class project for "Physics of Crystal
Surfaces", and continued his research thereafter. He also studied the effect of stress
on the reconstructed silicon and germanium surfaces with the (103) orientation, and
has coauthored a paper in Applied Physics Letters.
Aaron Kofford
(MSc-thesis, 2007) Aaron started in his senior year to work on finding the lowest-energy
shape of ultra-thin nanowires. He graduated in May 2005 with a Bachelors in Engineering
and has earn his Masters degree working on finding the optimal cross sections and
studying the mechanical response on fcc metal nanowires. He is currently with the
Design Engineering group at ATK Launch Systems in Brigham City, UT.
Ryan M. Briggs
(MSc-thesis, 2006) Ryan joined the group in September 2004 as a senior student
and worked on analyzing the interaction of defects on the Si(001)surface. Upon graduation
with a BSc. in Applied Physics in May 2005, he entered the graduate program in
Engineering (Mechanical) and worked on diverse problems regarding the structure of high
index semiconductor surfaces. He studied the influence of strain and hydrogen passivation
on the energetics of the Si(105) surface and designed from scratch an optimization
algorithm for finding the structure of arbitrarily oriented steps on high-index
semiconductor surfaces. He defended his Masters Thesis in April 2006 and won the
National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship in the same month.
Ryan is currently pursuing his PhD degree at Caltech.