Applied Physics
From first-principles modeling to device designs.
Our research in this area uses physics to develop new technologies or solve an engineering problem, including optimal design of freeform optics, metamaterials, photonic and solid-state semiconductor devices; the modeling and analysis of electro-magnetic systems and studies on superconductivity and magnets.
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Researchers
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Awards
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AWARD Best Paper Award at SDEMPED 2023 Date: August 30, 2023
Awarded to: Bingnan Wang, Hiroshi Inoue, and Makoto Kanemaru
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Data Analytics, Multi-Physical ModelingBrief- MERL and Mitsubishi Electric's paper titled “Motor Eccentricity Fault Detection: Physics-Based and Data-Driven Approaches” was awarded one of three best paper awards at the 14th IEEE International Symposium on Diagnostics for Electric Machines, Power Electronics and Drives (SDEMPED 2023). MERL Senior Principal Research Scientist Bingnan Wang presented the paper and received the award at the symposium. Co-authors of the paper include Mitsubishi Electric researchers Hiroshi Inoue and Makoto Kanemaru.
SDEMPED was established as the only international symposium entirely devoted to the diagnostics of electrical machines, power electronics and drives. It is now a regular biennial event. The 14th version, SDEMPED 2023 was held in Chania, Greece from August 28th to 31st, 2023.
- MERL and Mitsubishi Electric's paper titled “Motor Eccentricity Fault Detection: Physics-Based and Data-Driven Approaches” was awarded one of three best paper awards at the 14th IEEE International Symposium on Diagnostics for Electric Machines, Power Electronics and Drives (SDEMPED 2023). MERL Senior Principal Research Scientist Bingnan Wang presented the paper and received the award at the symposium. Co-authors of the paper include Mitsubishi Electric researchers Hiroshi Inoue and Makoto Kanemaru.
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News & Events
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TALK [MERL Seminar Series 2023] Prof. Faruque Hasan presents talk titled A Process Systems Engineering Perspective on Carbon Capture: Key Challenges and Opportunities Date & Time: Tuesday, September 19, 2023; 1:00 PM
Speaker: Faruque Hasan, Texas A&M University
MERL Host: Scott A. Bortoff
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, OptimizationAbstract- Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is a promising pathway to decarbonize fossil-based power and industrial sectors and is a bridging technology for a sustainable transition to a net-zero emission energy future. This talk aims to provide an overview of design and optimization of CCUS systems. I will also attempt to give a brief perspective on emerging interests in process systems engineering research (e.g., systems integration, multiscale modeling, strategic planning, and optimization under uncertainty). The purpose is not to cover all aspects of PSE research for CCUS but rather to foster discussion by presenting some plausible future directions and ideas.
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NEWS Ankush Chakrabarty co-organized three sessions at the ACC2023, and was nominated for Best Energy Systems Paper. Date: June 30, 2023 - June 2, 2023
Where: San Diego, CA
MERL Contact: Ankush Chakrabarty
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Control, Data Analytics, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, RoboticsBrief- Ankush Chakrabarty (researcher, Multiphysical Systems Team) co-organized and spoke at 3 sessions at the 2023 American Control Conference in San Diego, CA. These include: (1) A tutorial session (w/ Stefano Di Cairano) on "Physics Informed Machine Learning for Modeling and Control": an effort with contributions from multiple academic institutes and US research labs; (2) An invited session on "Energy Efficiency in Smart Buildings and Cities" in which his paper (w/ Chris Laughman) on "Local Search Region Constrained Bayesian Optimization for Performance Optimization of Vapor Compression Systems" was nominated for Best Energy Systems Paper Award; and, (3) A special session on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to improve recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in STEM research.
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Internships
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SA2114: Multilayer broadband metalenses
MERL is seeking a talented researcher to collaborate in the development of design algorithms for metalenses that are freeform, multilayer, and broadband. The ideal applicant will have a strong background in the relevant physics & maths, and has some fluency with the topology optimization and EM simulation tools commonly used in metasurface optics. Also desirable: familiarity with machine learning / AI tools and methods.
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EA2050: Electric Motor Design and Electromagnetic Analysis
MERL is seeing a motivated and qualified individual to conduct research on electric motor design and modeling, with a strong focus on electromagnetic analysis. Ideal candidates should be Ph.D. students with solid background and publication record in one more research area on electric machines: electric and magnetic modeling, new machine design and prototyping, harmonic analysis, fault detection, and predictive maintenance. Research experiences on modeling and analysis of electric machines and fault diagnosis are required. Hands-on experience with new motor design and data analysis techniques are highly desirable. Start date for this internship is flexible and the duration is 3-6 months.
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ST2090: Radiation Source Localization
The Computational Sensing Team at MERL is seeking an intern to work on estimation algorithms for radioactive source localization. The candidate should have experience with statistical modeling and estimation theory. A detailed knowledge of interactions of particles with matter, imaging inverse problems, and/or computed tomography is preferred. Hands-on experience with high-energy physics simulators (e.g., Geant4) is beneficial but not required. Strong programming skills in Python are essential. Publication of the results produced during our internships is expected. The duration is anticipated to be 3-6 months.
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Recent Publications
- "Electric Machine Inverse Design with Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE)", IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), October 2023.BibTeX TR2023-134 PDF
- @inproceedings{Xu2023nov,
- author = {Xu, Yihao and Wang, Bingnan and Sakamoto, Yusuke and Yamamoto, Tatsuya and Nishimura, Yuki and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Ye},
- title = {Electric Machine Inverse Design with Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE)},
- booktitle = {IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)},
- year = 2023,
- month = oct,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-134}
- }
, - "Scene depths from a two-polarization metalens", Optica Imaging Congress / Flat Optics, August 2023.BibTeX TR2023-105 PDF
- @inproceedings{Brand2023aug,
- author = {Brand, Matthew and Kuang, Zeyu},
- title = {Scene depths from a two-polarization metalens},
- booktitle = {Optica Imaging Congress / Flat Optics},
- year = 2023,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-105}
- }
, - "Comparison of Learning-based Surrogate Models for Electric Motors", Conference on the Computation of Electromagnetic Fields (COMPUMAG), May 2023.BibTeX TR2023-042 PDF
- @inproceedings{Xu2023may,
- author = {Xu, Yihao and Wang, Bingnan and Sakamoto, Yusuke and Yamamoto, Tatsuya and Nishimura, Yuki},
- title = {Comparison of Learning-based Surrogate Models for Electric Motors},
- booktitle = {Conference on the Computation of Electromagnetic Fields (COMPUMAG)},
- year = 2023,
- month = may,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-042}
- }
, - "Multi-Objective Motor Design Optimization with Physics-Assisted Neural Network Model", IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), DOI: 10.1109/IEMDC55163.2023.10238886, May 2023, pp. 1-7.BibTeX TR2023-038 PDF
- @inproceedings{Sakamoto2023may,
- author = {Sakamoto, Yusuke and Xu, Yihao and Wang, Bingnan and Yamamoto, Tatsuya and Nishimura, Yuki},
- title = {Multi-Objective Motor Design Optimization with Physics-Assisted Neural Network Model},
- booktitle = {2023 IEEE International Electric Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC)},
- year = 2023,
- pages = {1--7},
- month = may,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/IEMDC55163.2023.10238886},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-038}
- }
, - "Tandem Neural Networks for Electric Machine Inverse Design", IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), DOI: 10.1109/IEMDC55163.2023.10238921, May 2023, pp. 1-7.BibTeX TR2023-040 PDF
- @inproceedings{Xu2023may2,
- author = {Xu, Yihao and Wang, Bingnan and Sakamoto, Yusuke and Yamamoto, Tatsuya and Nishimura, Yuki and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Ye},
- title = {Tandem Neural Networks for Electric Machine Inverse Design},
- booktitle = {2023 IEEE International Electric Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC)},
- year = 2023,
- pages = {1--7},
- month = may,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/IEMDC55163.2023.10238921},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-040}
- }
, - "Deep Born Operator Learning for Reflection Tomographic Imaging", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP49357.2023.10095494, May 2023, pp. 1-5.BibTeX TR2023-029 PDF Video Data
- @inproceedings{Zhao2023may,
- author = {Zhao, Qingqing and Ma, Yanting and Boufounos, Petros T. and Nabi, Saleh and Mansour, Hassan},
- title = {Deep Born Operator Learning for Reflection Tomographic Imaging},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
- year = 2023,
- pages = {1--5},
- month = may,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/ICASSP49357.2023.10095494},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-029}
- }
, - "Analytical Parametrization for Magnetization of Gadolinium based on Scaling Hypothesis", Physica A, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2023.128686, Vol. 617, pp. 128686, April 2023.BibTeX TR2023-015 PDF
- @article{Lin2023apr,
- author = {Lin, Chungwei},
- title = {Analytical Parametrization for Magnetization of Gadolinium based on Scaling Hypothesis},
- journal = {Physica A},
- year = 2023,
- volume = 617,
- pages = 128686,
- month = apr,
- doi = {10.1016/j.physa.2023.128686},
- issn = {0378-4371},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-015}
- }
, - "Summary Report of International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) 2022," Tech. Rep. TR2023-013, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, March 2023.BibTeX TR2023-013 PDF
- @techreport{Teo2023mar,
- author = {Teo, Koon Hoo},
- title = {Summary Report of International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) 2022},
- institution = {MERL website},
- year = 2023,
- month = mar,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-013}
- }
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- "Electric Machine Inverse Design with Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE)", IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), October 2023.
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