LAMMPS Workshop 2019 !
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On August 2019, I attended the LAMMPS workshop at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In this workshop, I had the opportunity to learn about new features in LAMMPS and about the application of LAMMPS for research in other areas. Also, I had the opportunity to personally meet the creators of LAMMPS code and other codes such as OVITO and OpenKIM. Specifically, I was very happy to meet Dr. Steve Plimpton, Dr. Aiden Thompson, Dr. Mitchel Wood, Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer, and Dr. Alexander Stukowski. These scientists have been an inspiration for me. Also, I presented a poster on my latest work and received very useful feedback from presenters. The following are some pictures I took from the worksop:
Research at Berkeley Lab !
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On 2019, I was granted a fellowship to visit the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at Berkeley, California ! Here, I worked together with Staff Scientist Dr. Andrew Canning to perform electronic calculations of interfaces and grain boundaries in CdTe material using Density Functional Theory. Our work will allow to know which defects are beneficial or detrimental for CdTe solar cells. We will continue the work and will publish our results soon. Here are some pictures during my summer stay at Berkeley Lab:
New scientific paper published !
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On April 2019, I published a paper with highly important results about the mobility of grain boundaries in CdTe solar cells. In this paper, I use Molecular Dynamics simulations to simulate the motion of Sigma 3, Sigma 7, and Sigma 11 grain boundaries in CdTe. Then, I plot distance over time plots varying the temperature to extract the mobility of the boundaries. The article was published through Nanomaterials Journal in the special edition Computational Materials Design for Renewable Energy Applications. You can find the publication here:
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/9/4/552
Also, you can find a list of all my published articles and conference proceedings here:
Teaching EE since 2018 !
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On Jan 2018, I started teaching classes at UTEP ! Some of the classes I teach include Electronics 1, Electric Circuits 2 , and Junior Professional Orientation. With over 120 students, I have received really good feedback so far ! Look at the rate my professor website to check some of the feedback from students !
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=2395381
Here are some of the comments I have received via student course evaluations:
NSF Cyber Carpentry training
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On July 2018, I had the opportunity to join the Cyber Carpentry Data Life-Cycle Training with the Datanet Federation Consortium at the university of South Carolina Chapel Hill. In this training, I learned how to use Docker and Singularity containers to maintain reproducibility of research results. Also, I learned to use Amazon Web Services and Jetstream. At the end of the training, I was able to use Docker to reproduce someone else’s research work. During the training, I interfaced with Ph.D. students and postdocs from all over the US. Thanks to Dr. Arcot Rajasekar, Dr. Bakinam Essawy, Julian Pistorius, and Upendra Devisetty for all your teaching ! The following are few pictures from the training:
International High Performance Computing Summer School
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On July 2018, I attended the International High Performance Computing Summer School in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Here, I learned about MPI, OpenMP, and HPC Python. Also, I presented a poster and had very useful conversations with experts from all around the globe about my research. Also, I had the opportunity to explore the city of Ostrava and learn about their culture and history. Here are a few pictures about this learning experience:
Graduated !!
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On May 2017, I obtained my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. My dissertation topic was “Molecular Dynamics Study of Poly And Monocrystalline CdS/CdTe Junctions and Cu Doped Znte Back Contacts for Solar Cell Applications”. I want to thank my family and friends for supporting me through the difficult work. Specifically, I want to thank my parents and siblings for giving me all their love. Also, I want to thank my advisor Dr. David Zubia for directing me to the completion of my work. Also, special thanks to my co-advisor Dr. Xiaowang Zhou for answering all my technical questions and for guiding me in my research. Additional thanks to all the members of the nano fabrication lab at UTEP.
NREL Hands-On Photovoltaic Experience
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On July 2017, I attended the Hands-On Photovoltaic Experience hosted by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. In this experience, I interacted with scientists and engineers at NREL, learned about solar cell fabrication and characterization, and built connections with other students and professors from around the US. Last but not least, I learned how to perform spectral mismatch calculations and corrections. I post-produced a video of the calculations we performed.
Here it is the video:
Here are some pictures !
Materials Research Society Conference Spring 2017
Posted on August 21, 2019 Leave a Comment
On April 2017, I was delighted to present a poster at the Materials Research Society International Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona. I drove approximately 6 hours from El Paso, Texas to Phoenix, Arizona in order to attend the conference. I listened to several talks related to my research including talks from First Solar and NREL. The following is a picture of the program which includes my name:
Poster presentation at the 44th IEEE PVSC international conference
Posted on August 20, 2019 Leave a Comment
On June 2017, I had the opportunity to present at the IEEE PVSC international conference again !! I got nominated for the best poster AGAIN !!
The 44th edition of the conference was held in the capital of the United States, Washington D.C. !! I was very excited to interface with experts around the globe and to make connections for future collaboration with other scholars.
Rodolfo Aguirre 