Dr. Yogesh Vohra sees an exciting future for AI in plasma science
Expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to predict novel materials that could be synthesized by low temperature plasma looks very promising, says Dr. Yogesh Vohra, a professor in the Department of Physics and the associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
“It is an exciting development,” says Dr. Vohra, who also has a secondary appointment as a professor in the UAB School of Engineering and is a Future Technologies & enabling Plasma Processes (FTPP) lead investigator. “This is particularly true when the AI/machine learning prediction can be validated by low temperature plasma synthesis and properties measurements in the laboratory.”
FTPP is an Alabama coalition of nine universities and a research corporation, managed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and supported by a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). It aims to transition plasma research into agricultural, manufacturing, space science, space weather prediction and other applications, establishing Alabama as a Southeastern regional hub for plasma science expertise and creating thousands of high-paying technical careers in the state and region.
diamond attraction
Synthetic diamonds were what attracted Dr. Vohra to plasma physics research.
“My interest in plasma physics research started with applications in synthetic diamond research and the use of single crystal diamond anvils in the studies on materials under high pressures,” he says.
Dr. Vohra grew up in Delhi, India. After completing his doctorate in India and a Humboldt Fellowship in Germany, he joined Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. as a postdoctoral scholar in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. When he finished his training there, he joined UAB in September 1992.
“After moving to UAB, I started researching growth of synthetic diamonds by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition,” Dr. Vohra says. “This research resulted in the award of several patents in the growth of gem diamond and the growth of nanocrystalline diamond thin films in metals by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition.”
The synthesis process involves exposing a substrate to one or more volatile precursors in the presence of a microwave-induced plasma, which reacts or decomposes on the surface to produce a deposit.
important FTPP support
FTPP’s financial support has been important to sustaining the plasma research infrastructure at UAB, Dr. Vohra says, including the large area microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition system for performing translational research to commercialization.
Currently, FTPP is supporting Dr. Vohra’s work on the synthesis of high-entropy materials by low temperature plasma methods.
“The high-entropy materials contain a mixture of five or more elements and show enhancement in physical and mechanical properties in comparison to the simple elemental compositions,” he says. “The thermal stability at high temperatures and high mechanical strength of high-entropy materials is expected to lead to their applications in extreme environments in the aerospace and nuclear industries.”
Alabama plasma physics research “could have impact in materials under extreme conditions – including aerospace – and plasma surface modified biomaterials in clinical use,” Dr. Vohra says.
Research collaborations among the academic partners in a previous NSF EPSCoR project called Connecting the Plasma Universe to Plasma Technology in Alabama (CPU2AL) and in FTPP have resulted in several extramural collaborative grant applications, Dr. Vohra says, and the research he conducts has directly benefited Alabama by growing its plasma science and engineering workforce.
“UAB has trained graduate students under CPU2AL and FTPP who have joined industrial positions in Alabama and faculty positions at the historically black colleges and universities in Alabama.”