research overview
- Dr. Neogi's research focuses on discovering new concepts and approaches that will lead to fundamental breakthroughs in the understanding of thermal, electronic, and other physical properties of materials. In parallel, the research applies the fundamental knowledge to transform different engineering applications ranging from energy conversion and storage, to computing, wireless communications, quantum technologies, thermal protection, and high-speed atmospheric vehicles and spacecraft that can sustain harsh environments. Dr. Neogi's research creates new physics-to-engineering research frontiers by integrating concepts from solid state physics, materials chemistry, nano- to microscale device physics and engineering. The CU Aerospace Nanoscale Transport Modeling (CUANTAM) Laboratory's research contributes to both (A) Basic Materials Physics and (B) Applied Physics for Technology fields. We contribute to (A) by establishing deeper understanding about the transport properties of electrons, phonons—quanta of lattice vibrations, and other elementary or quasi particles in materials. These particles are responsible for electronic, thermal, and other physical properties of materials. We consider different classes of nano- to microscale solid materials and study their (1) thermal and (2) electronic properties, and (3) interaction between different fundamental particles in them. We contribute to (B) by developing new AI-assisted computational methods that allows to apply basic physics concepts to engineering applications. We use these methods to predict the physical properties of materials within devices and design and discover new materials with target properties. The current projects are focused on developing (1) forward and inverse design models for materials discovery and (2) thermal models for microelectronic devices and thermal barrier coatings. The projects aim to establish fundamentally new physics-informed AI approaches for Applied Physics research.
