NEWS
Group News
2024 July -- Cai group performed fun lab demos and tours for rising 11th and 12th high school students from the Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech (BEE VT) program.
2024 July -- Dr. Cai serves as the Editorial Chair of the 25th International Conference on Wear of Materials.
2024 April -- Our joint paper with Prof. Tong's group is published in Science Advances and covered by 30+ media reports such as AAAS EurekAlert and CBS news.
2024 March -- Cai group attends 2024 TMS in Orlando, FL. Graduate students Zhengyu, Raja, and Jun Yeop attended and gave several oral and poster presentations.
2023 July -- New graduate student Jun Yeop Lee joined Cai group. Welcome Jun Yeop!
2023 March -- Cai group attends 2023 TMS in San Diego, CA. Graduate student Zhengyu gave two oral presentations.
2023 Jan -- New graduate student Edwin Eyram Klu joined Cai group. Welcome Edwin!
2023 Jan -- Our paper titled 'Understanding Tribocorrosion of Aluminum at the Crystal Level' is published in Acta Materialia. (Read more here)
2022 Dec -- Our co-authored paper with Prof Xiaowei Yue's group has been selected as the Best Paper in the 2022 IISE Transactions Focus Issue on Design and Manufacturing.
"NP-ODE: Neural Process Aided Ordinary Differential Equations for Uncertainty Quantification of Finite Element Analysis," IISE Transactions, 54(3): 211-226, 2022
2022 Aug -- New graduate students Albert Kodua and Raja Shekar Bhupal Dandu joined Cai group. Welcome Albert and Raja!
2022 June -- Kaiwen Wang sucessfully defended PhD thesis titled 'Multiphysics Modelling on the Effects of Composition and Microstructure during Tribocorrosion of Aluminum-based Metals and Structures'. Congratulations Dr. Wang!
2022 June -- Dr. Cai is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
2022 June -- Dr. Cai gave an invited talk at the 2022 TAMU Standardization of Methods in Additive Manufacturing in Corrosion Workshop.
2022 May -- Wenbo Wang sucessfully defended PhD thesis titled 'Effects of Chemical and Structural Heterogeneity on the Tribocorrosion Resistance of Metals in Aqueous Solutions'. Congratulations Dr. Wang!
2022 March -- Cai group attends 2022 TMS in Anaheim, CA. Graduate students Kaiwen, Wenbo, and Zhengyu gave oral and poster presentations.
2021 Nov -- Jia Chen sucessfully defended PhD thesis titled 'Corrosion and Tribocorrosion Kinetics of Al-based Concentrated Alloys in Aqueous Sodium Chloride Solution'. Congratulations Dr. Chen!
2021 Nov Jia graduation
2021 Sep to Oct -- Dr. Cai gave invited talks at University of Florida, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT Bhubaneswar), and Carnegie Mellon University.
2021 Summer -- Dr. Cai gave invited talks at Northwestern University and Univeristy of Manitoba.
2021 May -- Dr. Cai gave invited talks at University of California, Irvine and Penn State Univeristy. (watch here)
2021 May -- Cai group received research funding from Jefferson Lab to study metal electropolishing via computer simulations.
2021 Apr -- Dr. Cai gave invited talks at University of Alabama and University of Nebraska.
2021 Apr -- Cai group at Virignia Tech, in collaboration with Prof. Lin Li group from University of Alabama, received research funding from US National Science Foundation to study tribocorrosion of high enetropy alloys. (read here, and here)
2021 Jan -- Our paper titled 'Ultrahigh tribocorrosion resistance of metals enabled by nano-layering' has been published in Acta Materialia. (read here)
2020 Nov -- Cai group received research funding from Virgin Hyperloop to study metal corrosion.
2020 Nov -- Our paper titled 'Multiphysics modeling and uncertainty quantification of tribocorrosion in aluminum alloys' has been published in Corrosion Science. (read here)
2020 Nov -- Our collaborative paper with Prof. Xiaoting Jia's group titled 'Spatially expandable fiber-based probes as a multifunctional deep brain interface' has been published in Nature Communications. (read here)
2020 Aug -- Cai group received research funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to study novel corrosion-resistant coatings to improve long-term nuclear spent fuel storages. Read more here: VT news report.
2020 June -- Past Cai group member Hai T Tran is now a tenure-track faculty in Point Park University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (faculty page). Congratulations!
2020 May -- Our paper titled 'The origin of passivity in aluminum-manganese solid solutions' has been published in Corrosion Science. (read here)
2020 Apr -- Graduate students Kaiwen Wang and Wenbo Wang passed MSE qualify exam. Congratulations!
2020 Feb -- Graduate students Jia Chen, Kaiwen Wang, and Wenbo Wang gave oral presentations at the TMS conference in San Deigo.
2019 May -- Our paper titled 'Influence of Chemical Heterogeneity and Microstructure on the Corrosion Resistance of Biodegradable WE43 Magnesium Alloys' has been published in Journal of Materials Chemistry B. (read here)
This themed issue highlighting 2019’s rising stars of materials chemistry research. Each contributor was recommended by experts in their fields as carrying out work with the potential to influence future directions in materials chemistry. (https://pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/articlecollectionlanding?sercode=tb&themeid=880888f9-e71f-4dcc-bfdb-ff54cf2776ff)
2019 May -- Graduate students Jia Chen passed MSE qualify exam. Congratulations!
2019 Apr -- Graduate students Jia Chen and Wenbo Wang attended and presented at the 22nd International Conference on Wear of Materials (WOM) in Miami FL.
2018 Dec -- Our user proposal titled 'Probing the atomic-scale microstructure and composition of corroded amorphous and nanostructured alloy surface' has been approved by Oak Ridge National Lab.
2018 Dec -- Dr. Cai receives New Faculty Mentoring Project Grant from Virginia Tech.
2018 Nov -- Dr. Cai has been selected to participate in the 2019 Professional Development Institute (PDI) Program at Virginia Tech.
2018 Aug -- Cai group moved to Virginia Tech. Our lab is located at Randolph Hall 155B.
prior to Aug 2018
2018 Jan -- Dr. Cai organized a symposium and gave an invited talk at the 2018 International Conference on Plasticity, Damage, and Fracture at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2017 Aug -- Graduate students Rubayat, Wenbo, and Kaiwen join our group, welcome!
2017 Mar -- Cai group receives research funding from U.S. National Science Foundation. This grant will support the study on Optimizing Wear and Corrosion Resistance of Superlattice Coatings through Atomic-Scale Design. (project details)
2017 Mar -- Graduate student Hesham successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations!
2017 Mar -- Dr. Cai receives 2017 TMS Young Leaders Professional Award. The award was presented at the LMD luncheon on Wed, March 1, 2017 at the 146th TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. (Newswise report)
2016 Nov -- Our paper on optimizing ductility and fracture of amorphous metal thin films on polyimide using multilayers is published on International Journal of Fracture. (read here)
2016 Oct -- Graduate student Hai successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations!
2016 Aug -- Our paper on the corrosion resistance of Al and Al-Mn thin films is published on Thin Solid Films. (read here)
2016 July -- Graduate student Hesham presented his work on tribocorrosion at the Gordon research conference in Aquesous Corrosion @ UH.
2016 May -- Graduate student Sina successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations!
2016 Mar -- Dr. Cai receives Outstanding Faculty Award from USF.
2016 Jan -- Our paper on fabrication and deformation of aluminum microsandwich structure is publised in Journal of Materials Research. (read here)
2015 Nov -- Graduate student Hesham Mraied won 2015 USF College of Engineering Research Week Poster Award. Congratulations!
2015 June -- Dr. Cai was featured in the June issue of JOM.
2015 Apr -- Graduate student Hesham Mraied won 3rd Place of the Best Poster Awards at the 20th International Conference on Wear of Materials Toronto, Canada, 2015. Congratulations!
2015 Apr -- Cai group received research funding from Conmed Corporation.
2015 Mar -- Dr. Cai gave an invited talk 'Corrosion Resistance of Al-Mn Alloy with Nanocrystalline and Amorphous Structure' at the 2015 TMS meeting in Orlando, FL.
2015 Feb -- Dr. Cai received a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award. This five year award will support the study on the Effects of Alloy Concentration on the Tribocorrosion Resistance of Al-TM Supersaturated Solid Solutions. (project details)
2014 Dec -- Dr. Cai gave an invited talk titled 'Toward the Design of Tribocorrosion-Resistant Aluminum Alloys' at University of Florida MSE department colloquium.
2014 Nov -- Ammar successfully defended his MS thesis 'Exploration of Electrodeposition of Aluminum-Nickel Alloys and Multilayers in Organic Chloroaluminate Ionic Liquids'. Congratulation!
2014 Aug -- Our paper on microstructure and mechanical properties of multilayered Al-Mn is published at Journal of Materials Research. (read here)
2014 June -- Dr. Cai attended the 25th AeroMat conference in Orlando, FL.
2013 Nov 6 -- Hesham and Sina present their research on the 6th Annual College of Engineering Research Day at USF.
2013 Aug 1 -- Dr. Cai presented her work on AgCu at the Gordon research conference in Physical Metallurgy @ UNE.
2013 July 17 -- Cai research group demonstrated fun science labs to Girls Inc Pinellas. Thanks everyone for explaining science and engineering concepts using balloons, robots, potatoes, and Oobleck!
2013 March 28 -- Graduate student Sina Izadi won ASME Helen & Clarence Prince Scholarship. Congratulations!
2012 Dec 1 -- Sina Izadi joins the group, welcome! Sina got his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Shahid Chamran University.
2012 Sep 18 -- Our Acta Materialia paper titled 'Microstructural self-organization triggered by twin boundaries during dry sliding wear' appears online. (read here)
2012 Aug 20 -- Hesham Mraied joins the group, welcome!
2012 Aug 10 -- Dr. Cai departs MIT and joins USF Mechanical Engineering department in Tampa FL.
New Positions GRADUATE STUDENT We actively recruit graduate students in the areas of materials science, corrosion/tribocorrosion, and physical metallurgy. All students with background in materials science, mechanical engineering, chemistry, solid state physics or related fields are welcome to apply. If you are interested in our research, forward your CV and copies of transcripts to Dr. Cai (caiw@vt.edu). Please also send your application materials to the Materials Science and Engineering department graduate admission office. If you are interested in getting Dr. Cai's support to apply for graduate fellowships to support your Ph.D. at VT, either US-based or international scholarship, please contact Dr. Cai directly. UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT For students enrolled in a degree program at VT, there are research opportunities available in our group. We have opening for one undergraduate research assistant in summer 2024. Some laboratory/modeling experience is preferred, but not required. Those with more expertise will be given greater independence and responsibility. Email your CV or resume with your current GPA information to Dr. Cai (caiw@vt.edu). POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Currently there is no funded postdoctoral position available.
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