Xu Group

Nithil Harris Manimaran completed his master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, with research focus on polymers and microbiology. He briefly worked as a process engineer at a WES Pharma Inc., a generic pharmaceutical company in Maryland, before starting his Ph.D. in Microsystems Engineering at RIT. He is currently a 3rd year student working on 2D materials-based ion gated transistors for neuromorphic computing applications.

Outside of school, Nithil is an avid rock climber and enjoys biking. Also a fan of doing too many things, he is a freelance photographer with the Reporter magazine and a volunteer with RIT Ambulance working towards his EMT certification.

Claire Dantzlerward joined the Xu lab in Summer 2022 as a rising sophomore from the School of Physics and Astronomy. Claire began pursuing her Bachelors in Physics in 2021, and has since changed majors to pursue her B.Sc.-M.S. in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Currently, she is researching the differing methods for exfoliating two-dimensional materials for transistor fabrication.

Outside of the lab, she enjoys drawing, traveling, journaling, and playing piano.

Jimmy Li joined the Xu Lab in Fall 2024 as a first-year MS student in the School of Physics and Astronomy. He earned his BSc in Physics from the University of Southern California in 2024 and is now working toward a PhD in Physics at RIT. As an undergraduate researcher, he worked in Dr. Povinelli’s Nanophotonics Lab. Currently, Jimmy is focusing on nanowire gate-all-around transistors.

Outside of the lab, Jimmy enjoys reading light novels, playing video games with friends, and driving around. Jimmy is also an anime lover that collects figurines from shows that he loves.

Huayuan Han joined the Xu Lab in Summer 2023 as a first-year MS student in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Originally from China, Han earned his BS in Physics from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2023. His research focuses on electrochemical random access memory for energy-efficient computing, and he is leading the group’s nanofabrication efforts.

Outside of lab, he enjoys road trip, playing soccer, reading, photography and cooking. He has traveled to more than half of the states in US.

Joshua Masri joined the Xu Lab in Fall 2024 as a Master’s student in Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Born in Abington, Pennsylvania, he has experience in multiple fields of research and has presented his work at the American Physical Society’s annual convention. Currently, Josh focuses on testing and optimizing thin-film indium oxide transistors to advance the field of microelectronics.

Outside of research, he enjoys spending time at the gym, supporting his community, and working on personal projects in artificial intelligence.

Jake Streamer joined the Xu lab in Spring of 2023 as a sophomore in the Department of Computing Security. Jake’s current research involves creating artificial neural networks that represent and model physical devices based on novel material systems.

Outside of the lab, he enjoys playing ice hockey, hiking, and amateur radio communications.

Joniel Yege joined the Xu Lab in 2023 as a first-year undergraduate student in the School of Physics and Astronomy/Electrical Engineering. Joniel is interested in developing skills in both experimental techniques and computational modeling of nanoelectronic systems. Currently, he is working on electrochemical exfoliation of two-dimensional materials for device fabrication.

In his free time, Joniel enjoys playing volleyball, skateboarding, and sketching whatever comes to his mind.

Jacob Ziegler joined the Xu lab in summer 2024 as a fourth year BS student in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Jacob is working on finite element modeling of ion conductors for artificial neural networks simulation, and for integrating ion and electron transport in modeling to predict ionic and electronic responses in synaptic transistors

Steve Zehua Liang joined the Xu Lab in Fall 2023 as a third-year student in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Previously, he participated in an REU program on high-energy physics and di-Higgs production at Fermilab and the University of Maryland. Currently, Steve is working on fluorescence microscopy of electrochemical reactions while deepening his knowledge of device physics and the field of 2D nanoelectronics.

Outside of the lab, he enjoys ceramics, cooking, drink mixing, board games, PC games, sailing and kayaking. Steve also wants to ask everyone who saw this page: Have you heard of Stellaris?

Currently at Micron Technology

Wyatt Morrell was a master’s student in the School of Chemistry and Materials Science and a BS in Physics student at Rochester Institute of Technology. Wyatt joined the Xu Lab in Summer 2022 to pursue his MS degree and graduated in Fall 2024. His research focused on the fabrication and characterization of electric double-layer gated devices, as well as work on InAs gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, contributing to advancements in nanoelectronics

After a hard day of research, Wyatt enjoys cooking food for friends, playing cooperative video games, and playing Magic the Gathering. When time permits, Wyatt practices his blacksmithing by making cooking implements and various knick-knacks at his propane forge.

Currently at Northrop Grumman

Jacob Eisensmith joined the Xu Lab in Fall 2022 as a fourth-year Physics BS/MS student in the School of Physics and Astronomy and graduated in Summer 2024 with an MS in Materials Science and Engineering. Before his time in the lab, he also worked as a Junior Device Engineer at Owl Autonomous Imaging. Jacob’s research focused on exploring the quantum mechanical effects on the capacitance of electric double-layer systems. His additional interests include TCAD and DFT simulations, particularly in the context of nanomaterials.

In his personal life, Jacob is an avid homebrewer and spends time with friends PC gaming.

Currently a PhD student at Virginia Tech

Cori Sutton joined the Xu Lab in the summer of 2022 as a second-year undergraduate student in the School of Physics and Astronomy. He conducted research in the group throughout his undergraduate career, graduating in 2024. Cori’s work focused on using finite element modeling to study ion movement in solid polymer electrolytes and developing machine learning models to predict the response of ionic transistors within artificial neural networks.

Outside of lab, he enjoys snowboarding, skateboarding and he is also an avid guitar player.

Currently at Northrop Grumman

Caleb Bush started in the Xu lab in the fall of 2022 as an undergraduate senior in physics. He has had an REU involving condensed matter physics and inter metallic crystal growth at the MagLab(NHMFL) in Tallahassee, Florida. In the Xu lab, he worked on building an artificial neural network and comparing the learning accuracy of different activation functions.

Besides doing physics, Caleb is also the treasurer of RIT’s philosophy club, and he enjoys climbing, exploring, and playing strategy games.