MSE Grad Student Wins Second Place In MS&T Poster Competition
By Alec Arbia, Written Communications Assistant
Fatin Ishtiyaq, Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering, won second place in the Material Advantage Graduate Poster Contest
The Materials Science & Technology Technical Meeting & Exhibition (MS&T) is a well recognized annual forum for fostering technical innovation at the intersection of materials science, engineering, and applications. The MS&T conference was held this past October 1st through 4th, 2023, and a UConn graduate student took home second place in one of its renown poster competitions.
Fatin Ishtiyaq, a UConn Ph.D. student, won second place in the Material Advantage Graduate Poster Contest for his poster titled High-throughput Approach for Predicting Optical Properties of Crystals. He happily received a $150 prize.
In an explanation of his research, Ishtiyaq said, “In optical materials, the refractive index is the most important property. Usually, refractive index cannot be changed on the fly, but in materials with strong electro-optic couplings this can be done by the application of an electric field. Therefore, predicting electro-optic coupling in materials can be of paramount importance for advanced applications. We developed a general approach to compute these couplings in optical materials of any symmetry. These concepts can be utilized in devices such as modulators, switches, gratings and actuators, which can improve applications including photonics, optical communication systems, heads-up displays, and military and space technologies.”
Professor Serge Nakhmanson, Ishtiyaq’s advisor, says of the win, “I am delighted for Fatin, who represented his research and that of our group with such finesse and confidence. At the same time, I am very happy that, apparently, our modeling studies of materials optical properties are appreciated by the community – including our Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) colleagues, who were among the MS&T conference attendees.”
Ishtiyaq began attending UConn in 2020 to obtain his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering. He is expected to graduate in 2025.
Published: October 20, 2023
Categories: graduate students, news, poster contest, research
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