Ezra's Round Table / Systems Seminar: Houlong Zhuang (Arizona State )

Description

Materials Design in the Information Age and Beyond

Materials discovery has been greatly accelerated by techniques of artificial intelligence in the modern Information Age. But we are also expecting critical challenges from big materials data to computationally intense machine learning processes, as Moore’s law is coming to an end. Quantum computers, which use quantum superposition and interference to perform computations, hold great potential in handling big data and accelerating the optimization algorithms ubiquitous in machine learning models. As more and more quantum bits become available, the dawn of the Quantum Age is approaching us at speed. In this talk, I will use a new family of materials called high-entropy materials (HEMs) as an example to demonstrate how classical and quantum computers join forces to discover new HEMs that exhibit excellent properties, and to prepare for the upcoming challenges in materials discovery.

Bio:
Dr. Houlong Zhuang is currently an Assistant Professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University and a Scialog fellow for Negative Emissions Science. He obtained his doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University in 2014. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 2014-2015, and as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University from 2015-2017. He was trained as a theoretical and computational materials scientist in various fields of materials science and engineering, especially in energy-related areas including catalysis, lightweight metal alloys, two-dimensional materials, and solid/liquid interfaces. His current research is focused on applying quantum mechanical simulations, machine learning and quantum computing calculations to tackle issues such as hydrogen storage and direct air capture for a sustainable energy and environment future.