Research Quick Takes

Advancing Magnet Manufacturing

Thomas Keller Th'23 and Professor Ian Baker, in collaboration with Professor Wen Chen and Wuxian Yang at UMass Amherst, co-authored "Additive manufacturing of Mn-Al permanent magnets via laser powder bed fusion" published in Materialia. "We produced rare-earth-free permanent magnets with enhanced performance and a novel microstructure—a great step toward more sustainable electric motors," said Keller.

Minimizing Climate Uncertainty

Professor Hélène Seroussi is first author on "Insights into the vulnerability of Antarctic glaciers from the ISMIP6 ice sheet model ensemble and associated uncertainty" published in The Cryosphere. "These results come from an international effort that I led to understand the sources of uncertainty in projections of ice sheet contribution to sea level rise, and highlight the need to continue improving ice flow models," says Seroussi.

Machine Learning for Better Materials

Professor Ian Baker is a co-author of "Quantitative three-dimensional imaging of chemical short-range order via machine learning enhanced atom probe tomography" published in Nature Communications. The article presents an approach "to break the inherent resolution limits of atom probe tomography" and "help design future high-performance materials."

3D iPhone Scanning for EEG

Using an iPhone to produce accurate high-density EEG scans for electrode localization

Alums Alicia Everitt Th'19 and Haley Richards Th'22 are first authors on "EEG electrode localization with 3D iPhone scanning using point-cloud electrode selection" accepted for publication by the Journal of Neural Engineering. The authors, including Professors Ryan Halter and Ethan Murphy, present a method "using an iPhone to produce accurate high-density EEG scans for electrode localization—providing a needed portable and inexpensive solution," says Murphy.

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Andrew Closson Th'23, Research Associate Zhe Xu, Daniella Kubiak '20, Billy Jin Th'23, and Professor John Zhang are co-authors of "All-Electrospun Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting for Leadless Pacemakers" published in ACS Applied Electronic Materials, with an image by Thayer Graphic Designer Patricio Sarzosa accepted for the cover.

Global Conference on Osseointegration

Hixon Lab member and PhD Innovation fellow (surgical track) Adelaide Cagle attended the Global Collaborative Congress on Osseointegration in Charlotte, NC. Hers was chosen from a large group of abstracts for an oral presentation entitled "Tissue-Engineered Combination Construct for Osseointegration Support" and complimented as one of the best presentations at the conference.

Manuka Honey for Wound Healing

Hydrogels and cryogels arranged as a function of percent MH.

Karina Mitchell '23 is first-author on a paper published in Gels on a standard of practice for incorporating the antibacterial properties of Manuka honey into tissue-engineered scaffolds and evaluating biofilm reduction. Co-authors include research assistant Sreejith Panicker and Calista Adler '26.

Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting

The Hixon Lab attended the national Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA. PhD student Peter Bertone and Research Assistant Sree Panicker gave oral presentations on bone oncology and electrically-stimulated bone formation, respectively. PhD students Adelaide Cagle and Levi Olevsky gave poster presentations on dermal adhesion and craniofacial reconstruction, respectively.

Metastructure-Based Pressure Sensors

PhD students Huan Zhao and Julia Huddy, and professors Yan Li and Will Scheideler are coauthors of "Rational Design of 3D-Printed Metastructure-Based Pressure Sensors" published in Advanced Engineering Materials. The study found that metastructure architecture design can lead to substantial expansion of the sensing range. The practical application of this technology was demonstrated in an undergraduate ENGS 33 bridge project.

Best Paper Award

Professor Vikrant Vaze at the INFORMS annual meeting in Phoenix.

Professor Vikrant Vaze received the INFORMS AAS Best Paper Award this week at the INFORMS annual meeting in Phoenix. The paper entitled, "Choice-Based Airline Schedule Design and Fleet Assignment: A Decomposition Approach," proposes a "decomposition approach based on partitioning the flight network into smaller subnetworks by exploiting weak dependencies in network structure."

Advancing Sustainable Magnets

The Baker and Hautier research groups co-authored, "The phase transformation behavior of Mn-Al rare-earth-free permanent magnets" published in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. Authors include PhD students Thomas Keller and Dylan Barbagallo, and postdocs Tushar Ghosh and Natalya Sheremetyeva, along with professors Geoffroy Hautier and Ian Baker. The study presents an "alternative to high-performance rare-earth permanent magnets for use in electric motors and devices."

Advancing Materials Science

New publications from the Hautier Research Group include "First-principles study of intrinsic and hydrogen point defects in the earth-abundant photovoltaic absorber Zn₃P₂" published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A and authored by postdoc researchers Zhenkun Yuan and Yihuang Xiong, and Professor Geoffroy Hautier. Xiong and Hautier are also co-authors of "Strong electron-phonon coupling driven pseudogap modulation and density-wave fluctuations in a correlated polar metal" published in Nature Communications.