New Faculty Spotlight: Shijing Sun

What is your Research Focus?

My research is at the exciting intersection of materials science, robotics, and artificial intelligence. With a vision to address global energy, climate, and sustainability challenges, my group focuses on understanding the fundamental structure-function relationships of materials for energy applications. Our approaches are centered on understanding and fostering collaborative intelligence, where scientists’ abilities are amplified by artificial intelligence and robotic maneuvers. Current research themes in my group revolve around three areas: 1) Autonomy – developing collaborative frameworks that combine human and artificial intelligence to make scientific decisions, such as designing lab workflows, testing protocols, and synthetic recipes, 2) Materials – exploring new material and interface functionalities for next-generation solar cells, batteries, and fuel cells. 3) Informatics – to better understand how materials design impacts device performance and durability for energy conversion and storage applications. In this realm, data-driven approaches are coupled with advanced characterization to bridge spatial, temporal, and chemical complexity.

What opportunities at the UW excite you?

The boundless inspiration that stems from interdisciplinary research and the collaboration opportunities through the UW Clean Energy Institute and eScience Institute.