Grants & Funding: 2020-2021

The Clancy group is grateful to have received funding from the following sources in the past few years:

  • DOD CAEP (2021)
    Title: “DOD Center of Excellence for Advanced Electro-Photonics with 2D Materials” (joint with Morgan State University)
    Our role in this center is to provide computational studies to predict the thermoelectrically relevant properties of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) thin films and nanostructures. We support the experimental programs of the CAEP team by calculating structural and thermoelectric properties of TMD systems and providing related mechanistic information with atomic-level precision. We plan to explore the limit of predictive design of 2D materials with desirable properties using machine learning to explore the landscape.
  • DOE SPIRAL (2020)
    Title: “Synthesis and Processing Informed by Rational Algorithmic Learning”
    This new center will harness AI to accelerate the optimization of low-cost materials for solar energy. This multi-university center will draw upon the team’s collective expertise in studying metal halide perovskites, a very promising high-performing class of materials for solar cells. These materials offer unique advantages of low-energy fabrication (being made from earth-abundant materials in solution at ambient temperature) and low-cost approaches such as inkjet printing and slot-die coating. Despite this promise, optimizing the processing conditions and choice of composition of the material involves far more variables than can be studied in an Edisonian trial-and-error manner. This is an ideal case in which machine learning can help tame an otherwise overwhelming number of options.
  • NSF (2020)
    Title: “Conjugated Polymers Doped via Covalent Dopant-Molecule Adducts” (with Howard Katz, Mat. Sci. & Engr.)
    This award looks at the design of conjugated polymer-dopant systems to produce printable, flexible, optoelectronic, and bioactive electronic conductors. The approach includes advanced experimental (Katz) and computational methods (Clancy) to delineate or to predict the chemical structure and reactivity/interaction of adducts and polymers.