Your Name and Affiliation:
Claus Trost, Erich Schmid Institute for Materials Science of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Your Host Name and Affiliation:
Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Materials Science and Technology (STM) @ Roma Tre
What was/were the goals of your STSM:
I had the pleasure of spending two weeks as a Visiting Researcher at Università degli Studi Roma Tre. It was a fantastic experience collaborating with Prof. Edoardo Rossi, Prof. Sudarshan Phani (University of Hyderabad), Prof. Marco Sebastiani, Laia Ortiz Membrado (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)) and the team of Materials Science and Technology (STM) @ Roma Tre to advance our works on nanoindentation combined with machine learning for (self-healing) thin films and composite materials.
Did the STSM help your research? In what way(s)?
Yes, the STSM helped me by bringing specialists in nanoindentation and machine learning together to discuss our work and to create new datasets for us to explore different effects on. I’m interested in self-healing thin films, so it was great to gain high-quality nanoindentation data, which is, in this case, a function of composition and film thickness. Additionally, collaborating with Edo and Phani significantly enhanced my understanding of 4D high-throughput nanoindentation. Performing Continuous Stiffness measurements enabled us to utilize the entire indentation curve, as well as the Elastic Modulus and Hardness as a function of indentation depth. As someone working purely on the data-driven side of Nanoindentation, it was very fruitful to learn from Phani, who is a specialist in building Nanoindenters. It was really great that Edo was able to host all of us at the same time.
Would you recommend others to apply for an STSM?
I definitely recommend others to apply for an STSM. Rome is closer than it seems to Leoben; it is just a night train ride away.