How does the science behind baking a gingerbread house relate to the progressive world of artificial intelligence? If you ask Miranda Schwacke, a PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, she’ll tell you that the link lies in the concept of how structure influences function. It’s an intersection of delicious biscuits and intelligent brains – believe it or not.
Członek Kitchen Matters, a group comprising MIT grad students that turn cooking into a platform for explaining scientific concepts, Miranda didn’t just set out to bake a confectionary delight. She was after a gingerbread house that was not just appetizing, but also structurally durable. It culminated into a hunt for a foolproof recipe by experimenting with differing cookie formulations, which eventually boiled down to manipulating a key component: butter.
“Butter houses water and turns it into steam when baked, creating air pockets. I presumed that reducing the butter would make the cookies denser and stronger, perfect for building,” she explains. This very experiment found its place in a Kitchen Matters video demonstrating how the internal structure of a material, like cookie dough, can drastically influence its characteristics.
Miranda has always been captivated by how materials behave under different circumstances. This interest laid the foundation for her groundbreaking research on neuromorphic computing – an energy-efficient approach to AI inspired by the intricacies of the human brain. Unlike traditional computing that separates memory and processing, neuromorphic devices fuse these two functions just like the human synapses do. Miranda says, “Training large AI models consumes massive amounts of energy. Our brains, on the other hand, can learn consuming far lesser energy. The efficiency of our brains forms the core idea behind neuromorphic systems.”
Starting with her earliest memories of growing up with a marine biologist mother and an electrical engineer father, Miranda’s fascination for science was fostered as a way to decipher the world. In high school, she uncovered her love for materials science and completed her bachelor’s degree at Caltech where she pursued studies on nanostructured materials and electrochemical systems such as battery and fuel cells. Today, at MIT, she’s putting in the hard work to innovate for energy-efficient AI, focusing precisely on how magnesium ions interact with tungsten oxide – a material whose electrical resistance can be meticulously regulated, to mimic synaptic behavior.
Poza tym Miranda jest pasjonatką wnoszenia trwałego wkładu w szerszą społeczność naukową. Jako wolontariuszka edukuje dzieci za pomocą praktycznych eksperymentów i pełniła różne funkcje w organizacjach naukowych. Miranda wierzy, że skuteczna komunikacja ma kluczowe znaczenie dla środowiska badawczego opartego na współpracy. Kierując się ciekawością naukową, ma nadzieję zostać profesorem i mentorem dla następnego pokolenia naukowców, inspirując ich do podejmowania wyzwań i dokonywania przełomowych odkryć.
This website uses cookies.