Inverse Design and Discovery Group

We study fascinating problems at the intersection of wave physics, information processing and computational design. At the heart of our research lies the philosophy of inverse design, wherein we deploy expansive optimization platforms—typically featuring thousands to billions of parameters. This innovative approach allows us to discover novel geometries and functionalities through direct "differentiation" of the governing physical equations of motion. While our core expertise resides in electromagnetics and photonics, our intellectual pursuits span a multitude of disciplines. These encompass light-matter interactions in classical and quantum environments, acoustics and phononics, bio-chemical reaction-diffusion systems, machine learning and computer vision (to name just a few)—in short, we care about any design problem which could benefit from rich physical equations and from carefully-formulated optimization and control. Our recent efforts have been focused on multi-scale multi-modal physical engineering design where fundamental physical processes in nano/micro-structures are tightly engineered into larger systemic frameworks via large-scale optimization. We are an extremely forward-looking group pulsating with new ideas and projects. We proudly celebrate the work we have done and we even more eagerly look forward to the work we will do, and relish the next challenge. Come join the fun!

Check out a few highlights from our research (more slides on the way!).

While our ambitions are geared towards realizing novel systems and devices, our spirits revel in equations and programming. If you want to dig a little deeper into our techniques, please check these out (coming soon!)