Labs and Facilities

MDI provides a comprehensive set of computational and laboratory facilities for its faculty, students and researchers. 

These unique laboratories serve as focal points for creating a shared and cooperative research environment for promoting interdisciplinary research among diverse research groups. The MDI facilities complement the comprehensive array of computational and experimental materials synthesis, processing and characterization facilities (e.g. Center for Computational Research and the Shared Instrumentation Laboratory) at UB.

Materials Data Engineering Laboratory (MaDE@UB)

An information science eco-system for materials and design and innovation

The NSF Materials Data Engineering Laboratory (MaDE@UB Lab) is a joint initiative between MDI, the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS) and the Center for Computational Research to develop machine intelligence driven tools to query and interpret text, graphs and images in the materials sciences.

The MaDE@UB Lab conducts a highly interdisciplinary research program harnessing expertise in machine learning, pattern recognition, materials informatics and modeling to create machines with the cognitive skills for linking both computational and experimentally derived materials science literature and data. With the capacity to explore massive amounts of literature and data, the MaDE@UB Lab provides a new trajectory of data-intensive materials science research impacting accelerated discovery of new materials.

CRC Visualizer.

Materials to Manufacturing (M2M) Lab

The M2M Lab encompasses a range of newly installed advanced synthesis and processing capabilities including nano-synthesis, wet chemistry capabilities, soft materials processing, advanced CVD and MBE deposition systems and additive manufacturing tools for structural materials.

The M2M facility also houses the Materials Robot Sandbox, a development platform and workspace to advance the field of autonomous materials development. 

Molecular Metrology Laboratory

Probing chemistry and structure at the atomic scale

The Molecular Metrology Laboratory is a unique facility consisting of an array of advanced instrumentation that push the envelope in structural and chemical resolution for materials characterization; and integrates the use of advanced data science techniques for quantitative interpretation of data.  These include:

  • E-APT: in-situ Environmental Atom Probe Tomography: a unique one of a kind facility that integrates a state-of-the-art atom probe tomography system with an environmental chamber that permits the study of gas-solid reactions at the surface.

    The E-APT allows three-dimensional atomic scale chemical imaging to study the impact of environmental modification on materials. This serves as a new class of instrumentation that can capture chemical and structural imaging information in three dimensions, with single atom resolution, both at the surface as well as sub-surface regions, associated with modifying materials through gas-solid reactions and/or thin film deposition
  • BioXFEL: Under the leadership of Prof. E. Snell, the NSF Science and Technology Center at UB, pushes the frontier of biomolecular sciences using X-ray free electron laser spectroscopy. When coupled to advanced computational and data analytical tools, the BioXFEL opens the door towards imaging biological molecules in atomic detail and viewing biomolecular motions
MML lab.