TMI Newsletter | September 2025

Featured News

UT Austin Graduate Student Researchers Drive Innovation in Battery Manufacturing

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, leveraging the resources and expertise of the Texas Materials Institute (TMI), are developing innovative solutions to address key challenges in battery manufacturing.

Student-Led Discoveries in Electrochemical Systems published in MRS Bulletin

Materials Science & Engineering graduate students, Shan Kutagulla and Patrick Carmichael, collaborated with other Cockrell School students and faculty to improve clean energy technologies that turn carbon dioxide (CO₂) into useful products.

TMI Affiliated Faculty Member Dr. Huiliang Wang a Finalist for Science & PINS Prize

Dr. Huiliang Wang, an assitant professor in Biomedical Engineering and an affiliate of Texas Materials Institute, was a finalist for the 2025 Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation. The Science & PINS Prize, eestablished in 2016, recognizes researchers in the field of neuromodulation.

TMI-Led Team Turn Microbubbles into Robotic Microtools

Materials Science & Engineering (MS&E) alum Hyungmok Joh, MS&E graduate student Bin Lian, and TMI faculty member Donglei Emma Fan unveiled a breakthrough in microbubbles, which had been a technological challenge up to now. In collaboration with Prof. Peer Fischer and Prof. Zhichao Ma (Max Planck Institute) and Prof. Si-Yang Zheng’s group (Carnegie Mellon University), the team developed a new opto-electrochemical technique that uses low-intensity light and electrolysis to allow for a precise assembly of complex patterns at room temperature.

"Architected Materials" has Dr. Yulan Zhang & Team as Finalists in Gulf Futures Challenge

Dr. Yunlan "Emma" Zhang, a faculty affiliate of TMI with an appointment in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and her team - in collaboration with Dr. Xiao Yu from the University of Florida - are one of the 10 finalists for the Gulf Futures Challenge. Her research group, along with Dr. Yu's team from UF, have been developing NACRE - Nature-Inspired Architected Coastal Resilient Ecostructures- a next-generation, modular infrastructure system that leverages large-scale additive manufacturing and eco-friendly materials to protect coastal communities while restoring its ecosystems.

MSE Students are Finalists in Collegiate Inventors Competition

Weixin Guan and Yaxuan Zhao, Materials Science & Engineering graduate students with the Texas Materials Institute, have been named one of the five finalist teams in the 2025 Collegiate Inventor Competition. Both students of Dr. Guihua Yu, the team invented AirGel, a cost-effective, water-harvesting device made from hydrogels that pulls water vapor from the air like a sponge.

MS&E Students Lead Paper on Accurately Predicting How Charged Defects Scatter Electrons

Defects are unavoidable in real materials and can strongly influence properties such as electrical conductivity and electron dynamics. Until now, researchers had to rely on rough approximations to describe the scattering of charged defects, which limits the understanding and predictions of materials’ properties. Yuanyue Liu’s group at TMI of UT Austin recently developed a new way to accurately predict how charged defects in crystals scatter electrons.

MS&E Graduate Student Represents TMI at Conference & Summer Undergrad Program

Aniket Marne, a student under José Alvarado, presented his research, "Pinned Boundaries Induce Spatial Heterogeneity in Active Biopolymer Network Contraction" at the Gordon Research Conference on Soft Condensed Matter Physics - Squishy, Living, and Adaptive Matter. He also mentored 2 undergrad research students during UT's NSF MRSEC Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and received 2nd place among all the graduate student mentors for his mentorship. Great job Aniket!

Dr. Donglei Emma Fan Discusses Future of Nanomotors on Collaborative Paper in Nature Nanotechnology

Dr. Fan, along with a group of researchers from around the world, published an article covering nanomotor research so far and the key challenges that lay ahead. Read more of "A Roadmap for Next-Generation Nanomotors" at Nature Nanotechnology.

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Fall 2025 MSE 397 Seminar Series: October