CEMSE Weekly Updates - Aril 8, 2025

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Happening Now

Join us at the third edition of SAAI Factory for inspiring talks by leading creatives and researchers at the intersection of AI and the arts. 

Upcoming Events

Gallium Oxide Diodes: Past , Present and Future Applications

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B9 L2 R2325

This talk will explore recent advancements in gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) diode technology, highlighting its potential as a cost-effective ultra-wide bandgap material for high-power electronics despite challenges in electron mobility and thermal conductivity.

Enhancing Solar Fuel Production Performance through Catalyst Design and Device Engineering

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B2 L5 R5209

This thesis integrates catalyst design and device engineering to enhance solar fuel production performance. Our work focuses on expanding the scope of solar fuels beyond hydrogen in PV-EC systems and improving the efficiency and long-term stability of the photoanode in PEC water splitting, thereby enhancing solar energy utilization.

Making LLMs Agentic: How Tool Use and Synthetic Data Drive Real-World Intelligence

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B2/3 L0 R0215

This talk presents advancements in agentic AI, focusing on creating and utilizing datasets and models that enable Large Language Models to effectively interact with external tools for real-world applications.

Strategies for Improving Communication Efficiency in Distributed and Federated Learning: Compression, Local Training, and Personalization

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B5 L5 R5209

This dissertation advances communication-efficient distributed and federated learning through novel algorithms for model compression, local training optimization, and personalization, validated by theoretical analysis and empirical results.

Advancing Optoelectronics and Power Electronics: From Ultrawide-Bandgap Semiconductors to Silicon-Integrated Plasmonic Heterojunctions for Next-Generation Applications

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B3 L5 R5209

Addressing critical challenges in on-chip communication, this presentation details the development of silicon-integrated plasmonic heterojunction devices within the broader context of energy-efficient, high-performance electronic and photonic systems. We emphasize material innovations (e.g., transparent conductive oxides) and architectural advancements aimed at enhancing efficiency and minimizing optical losses.

Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits with Integrated Lasers

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B9 L2 R2322

Tremendous progress is being made at silicon photonic foundries around the world to improve the performance, yield and capability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and that is opening up new markets, including quantum computing and sensing. These results will be described with an emphasis on integrating lasers to PICs and the improvements in laser and system performance that are possible.

Frequency-Domain Description of Semiconductor Mode-Lock Lasers

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B9 L2 R2322

This talk presents a frequency-based theoretical framework utilizing multimode laser theory to explain the diverse dynamical behaviors of semiconductor mode-lock lasers by analyzing mode competition and multiwave mixing through a generalized Alder's equation, with direct connection to the semiconductor bandstructure.

Towards Safe, Factual, and Empathetic Human-AI Interaction

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B9 L3 R3223

This talk will explore the challenges of evaluating and improving LLM factuality, safety, and cultural sensitivity, addressing questions about hallucination rates, retrieval-augmented generation efficacy, fact-checking limitations, regional policy alignment, and the necessity of machine-generated content detection.

Homogenization and Wave Functional Materials

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B9 L2 R2325

In this talk, I will give a brief review on the progress from on homogenization and its impact on achieving unusual wave functional materials, such as zero-index materials in which the effective refractive index is vanishing.