Research Quick Takes

PhD student Bruno Miranda Henrique gave a presentation that won the research award for the graduate division in math and computer science at this year's International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE) by Sigma Xi. His research, titled "Dynamic Trust Calibration Using Contextual Bandits," addresses the need for a definitive and objective method for measuring trust between humans and AI. "Our indicator dynamically assesses when to trust AI contributions based on learned contextual information," reads the abstract. "These findings not only enhance theoretical understanding but also provide practical guidance for developing more trustworthy AI systems supporting decisions in critical domains, for example, disease diagnoses and criminal justice."

Postdoc researcher Yanqiao Li Th'25, advised by Professor Jason Stauth, presented his startup, uDrive, at The Engine's Blueprint Showcase in Boston—the culmination of a program that helps researchers build "tough tech" startups. Leveraging Li's PhD research at Thayer, uDrive develops technologies for next-generation haptics and compact cooling solutions for mobile devices. Smartphones currently use basic haptics [vibrations] for notifications," Li explained. "High-definition haptics, enabled by new piezoelectric actuators, can do much more—such as allowing you to feel the texture of clothes while shopping online. The widespread adoption of this technology, however, is currently limited by a lack of high-voltage, energy-efficient electronics. Our startup is bridging this gap."

Professor Jacob Buffo gave a video presentation about his recently completed Planetary Society "Science and Technology Empowered by the Public" (STEP) grant project. Buffo and his team investigated "Multiscale Characterization of Brine-Rich Planetary Analog Environments," with the goal of helping to optimize site selection for planetary and astrobiology missions.

Professor Rafe Steinhauer authored "Improving Public Schools by Co-Design," published in the inaugural issue of Dartmouth's Social Impact Review. The article centers on Steinhauer's unique approach to combining design and education. "Our program [Upper Valley Education Design Clinic] prioritizes co-design. Together, district teams and undergraduate students [ENGS 15.11: Design and Education] learn design thinking ... This is an exciting model for town-gown partnership—not just universities serving schools, but higher education and K-12 communities working as co-designers of change," writes Steinhauer. 

PhD student Jiahui Luo and Professor Wesley Marrero—with quantitative biomedical sciences PhD student Guofang Ma and Miranda Scully '26—co-authored "Modeling the impact of social determinants on breast cancer screening: a data-driven approach" published in Frontiers in Medicine. "The study identified opportunities for healthcare organizations to transform sociodemographic data into targeted, facility-level intervention strategies while adapting to payer incentives and addressing screening gaps," said Marrero.

PhD student Mai Pham and professors Vikrant Vaze and Peter Chin coauthored "Strategic Cyber Defense via Reinforcement Learning-Guided Combinatorial Auctions" which was chosen for presentation at the IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference. "This work formulates the cyber defense problem, in which we act as a defense agent protecting a network from malware attackers, as a combinatorial auction," said Pham. "We combined reinforcement learning with differentiable mechanism design to find the best resource allocation for the hosts, which aims to upstream decision making and proactively protect the network."

Research Associate Peiyu Wang Th'25, PhD students Huilin Qing and Ruiwen Zhang, and Professor Fiona Li coauthored "Fluorine-free electrolytes for sustainable lithium batteries: a review" published in npj Materials Sustainability. The paper highlights insights and advances in fluorine-free salts, solvents, additives, and interphases, along with challenges and opportunities, offering sustainable solutions potentially competitive with conventional fluorinated electrolytes. "Modern lithium battery electrolytes rely on fluorinated components to enhance performance and functionality, but such schemes raise safety, environmental, and cost concerns due to hydrogen fluoride generation and hazardous production," said Li.

Professor Jifeng Liu is coauthor of "Identification of short-range ordering [SRO] motifs in semiconductors" published in Science. Using electron microscopy and machine learning models, the study confirmed the presence of semiconductor SRO—where atoms form mini configurations or "neighborhoods" within the material. The concept of SRO has lacked experimental evidence, and this confirmation opens up new possibilities for controlling the properties of semiconductors. "My lab was the first to identify the samples that revealed signs of atomic ordering, and I initiated and promoted the idea that engineering atomic neighborhoods in semiconductors offers a new degree of freedom for controlling their electrical and optical properties," said Liu.

Goods Lab PhD student Laasya Devi Annepureddy is co-lead author of "Integrated ‘omics analysis reveals human milk oligosaccharide biosynthesis programs in human lactocytes" published in iScience. The study reveals pathways for how breastmilk cells produce sugars that are critical to infant health and development, and paves the way for being able to add them to formula or as a supplement to certain foods. "Being part of this project has been incredibly rewarding," said Annepureddy. "Our findings bring us one step closer to understanding the remarkable biology of human milk, and I’m grateful to the outstanding team whose collaboration made this work possible."

Saifur Rahman Th'25 and Professor Will Scheideler coauthored "Liquid Metals in Radio Frequency Applications: A Review of Physics, Manufacturing, and Emerging Technologies" published in Advanced Electronic Materials. "Liquid metal materials are transforming soft and stretchable radio frequency devices by enabling highly-conductive, mechanically-adaptable components that can conform to wearable and bio-integrated applications," said Scheideler. "This work highlights the physics of energy loss in liquid metal systems, innovative fabrication techniques, and diverse applications."

PhD student Soroush Vahedi and Professor Junbo Zhao are lead authors of "Probabilistic Resilience-Oriented Assessment Approach for Transmission Networks under Wildfires" published in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Their approach provides critical insights for identifying system vulnerabilities and developing robust strategies to protect transmission networks from wildfires.

PhD student Tong Su and Professor Junbo Zhao are coauthors of "A Review of Safe Reinforcement Learning Methods for Modern Power Systems," published in and featured on the cover of Proceedings of the IEEE. The article "summarizes existing safe RL techniques, evaluates their performance, analyzes suitable deployment scenarios, and examines algorithm benchmarks and application environments."