Nebraska physicist awarded $849K grant to review disordered supplies for AI

LINCOLN, Neb — A University of Nebraska–Lincoln physicist, Robert Streubel, has acquired an $849,399 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program to discover how disordered, noncrystalline supplies might revolutionize microelectronics and computing methods that mimic the human mind. Streubel, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is specializing in amorphous magnetic supplies that lack a daily atomic construction. These supplies could supply benefits for applied sciences like bodily reservoir computing, which emulates the mind’s computing strategies. Streubel’s analysis goals to know how the association of atoms, even when disordered, can have an effect on magnetic habits and digital properties. By manipulating these supplies by means of bodily modifications, researchers hope to find new methods to manage these properties, probably resulting in extra energy-efficient gadgets. “This work could fundamentally shift how we think about disorder in materials,” Streubel stated. The grant additionally helps instructional initiatives, together with workshops for Nebraska highschool college students to have interaction with physics by means of artwork, and a graduate-level course on superior supplies characterization. Streubel’s outreach program, START SMART, goals to broaden STEM participation by making scientific ideas extra accessible by means of visible storytelling.