Serzat Safaltin defended his dissertation on “First-Principles Dopant Engineering of Functional Properties in Aluminum Scandium Nitride” on November 21, 2025.

Serzat Safaltin defended his dissertation on “First-Principles Dopant Engineering of Functional Properties in Aluminum Scandium Nitride” on November 21, 2025.

Cassidy will study the interface of silicon carbide and diamond composites. She will explore different types of grain boundaries and investigate how adding different atoms affect the strength of the composite.
Dennis will use first-principles and machine learning methods to develop relationships between the electronic properties and strength in silicon carbide-based armor.
The presentation was titled ‘Design using Atomistic and Mesoscale Models’.
Alpay’s research group, in collaboration with Hebert’s research group and other researchers, will work to provide the next generation manufacturing solutions for the aerospace sector. The project, titled “Simulation-Based Uncertainty Quantification of Manufacturing Technologies,” will help the U.S. Air Force develop more efficient manufacturing processes. The goal is to understand each and every step of the manufacturing process to eliminate failures in specialized aerospace parts. Better understanding the manufacturing process will lead to reduced costs, improved component and system quality, and enhanced industrial capability.
https://today.uconn.edu/2019/03/uconn-receives-major-contract-air-force-rd-advanced-manufacturing/
https://www.wpi.edu/news/calendar/events/mte-seminar-computational-materials-design-electrocaloric-materials-waste-heat
The presentation was titled ‘Accelerating Materials Development using Atomistic and Mesoscale Models’.
Our group was very active at the at the 2015 IMS Affiliates Annual Meeting held on May 27 at UConn. Tulsi, Yomery, Tumerkan and Fu-Chang presented 4 posters.

Tumerkan: Characterization of Ag/W Circuit Breaker Contacts After Dry, Humid, and Natural Aging, M. Tumerkan Kesim, Haibo Yu, Yu Sun, Jason Harmon, Jonathan Potter, Mark Aindow, S. Pamir Alpay
Tulsi: Additive Manufacturing, T. Patel, V. Sharma, G. Agarwal, E. Curry, S. Pamir Alpay, A. Dongare, J. Hancock, R. Hebert
Yomery: Pyroelectric and Dielectric Properties of Ferroelectric Films With Interposed Dielectric Buffer Layers, Y. Espinal, M. T. Kesim, I. B. Misirlioglu, S. Trolier-McKinstry, J. V. Mantese, and S. Pamir Alpay
Fu-Chang: Temperature dependent structural, elastic, and polar properties of ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and trifluoroethylene (TrFE) copolymers, Fu-Chang Sun, Avinash M. Dongare, Alexandru D. Asandei, S. Pamir Alpay, Serge Nakhmanson