Sophia Chao-Wei Huang
Graduate Student
About Sophia
Sophia grew up in Tainan, an ancient little city in Taiwan. Having grown up in the semiconductor tech hub of Taiwan, she’s always had a soft spot for the science behind electronic devices. During undergrad, she developed a love for polymer and biomedical materials, which became the focus of her undergraduate research project.
She later worked on organic optoelectronic devices for her Masters at NTU and her internship at the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan.
Since COVID happened, she’s started growing a lot of houseplants and building a spreadsheet of recipes.
Education
M.S., Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2018 (Advisor: Dr. Wen-Chang Chen)
B.S., Chemical Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, 2016 (Advisor: Dr. Jui-Che Lin)
Favorite Quote
"Anything is possible. It’s explaining that’s the tricky part."
Scientific Hero
Dr. Huey-Ing Chen (陳慧英教授); She was Chemistry Physics professor in undergrad. She was very hardworking, brilliant, and cares deeply about her students. She was one of the most dedicated teachers Sophia knew and the first female scientist role model she had. May she rest in peace.
If you could be a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?
"An electrodynamic shaker. Always wanted to have good rhythm."
Sophia's Research
Sophia is currently working on the design of a piezoelectric-based material system that can be programmed to autonomously grow to a targeted stiffness. The goal is to create materials and products with programmable stiffness and elasticity instead of needing individually tailored manufacturing specs.
Lab Publications
Chao-Wei Huang, Jun Wang, Zhao Wang, Jorge Ayarza, and Aaron P. Esser-Kahn
Enhancing the Piezoelectric Voltage Output in a Gel Composite through the Tuning of the Matrix Dielectric Constant ACS Applied Engineering Materials 2022 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaenm.2c00032
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Ayarza, J.; Wang, Z.; Wang, J.; Huang, C.-W.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. 100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Piezoelectrically Mediated Mechanochemical Reactions for Adaptive Materials. ACS Macro Lett.2020, 9(9), 1237–1248. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00477.