Principal Investigator
Owen Hildreth
Assistant Professor
Dr. Owen Hildreth is an Assistant Professor at the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy (SEMTE) at Arizona State University (ASU). He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2002 and worked for five years as a mechanical engineer designing consumer products. He returned to school in 2007 and, in 2012, received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. C. P. Wong. His Ph.D. research identified the mechanism for catalyst motion in metal assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) for applications in 3D nanofabrication. Prior to his appointment at ASU, he was a National Research Council (NRC) postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Technology (NIST) where he continued his study of MacEtch and expanded into additive manufacturing using reactive inks. His current research areas focus on additive manufacturing from the nanometer to centimeter scales, including Coulombic repulsion in ultra-nearfield electrohydrodynamic printing; mass transport, reaction kinetics, and interface design in reactive inks for stretchable electronics, photovoltaics, and microfluidic devcies; sensitization kinetics, microstructure evolution, dilution, and corrosion of metals fabricated using Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED) technologies.
Contact: owen[dot]hildreth[at]asu.edu Office: ERC 309
Ph.D. Students
Christopher Lefky
Graduate Research Assistant
Chris Lefky joined our group in Fall 2014. He graduated with his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Creighton University. His thesis focuses on understanding the microstructure and corrosion/dissolution of dissolvable metal supports for PBF and DED printing.
Avinash Mamidanna
Graduate Research Assistant
Avinash Mamidanna joined our group in Fall 2014 to pursue his Masters degree. He continued on as a PhD from Summer 2015 and has been a part of the group ever since. He is from Chennai, India and he got his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University, Madras. He is interested in understanding the kinetics of reactive ink systems and their applications as front contacts for low temperature photovoltaics.
Subbarao Raikar
Graduate Research Assistant
Subbarao Raikar joined our group as a volunteer in Fall 2017. He continued as a Ph.D. student from Spring 2018. He graduated with his B.E. in Aerospace Engineering from Jain University and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Arizona State University. He is currently working on dispense printing of reactive silver inks for photovoltaic application.
Fluffy
Dog Research Assistant
Fluffy is the Official Lab Dog. Often joining Dr. Hildreth at nights and on weekends, he makes sure the lab is kept neat and tidy. However, he is not a big fan of being in the lab because, as he says, “Labs belong in the lab. I’m a Great Dane. I should be in the dane, not the lab.” Luckily, he accepts his role as Official Lab Dog with stoic optimism as long has he gets the occasional treat.
Undergraduate Students
Steven Sawtelle is currently developing a Swift wrapper for the NI-VISA communication protocol.
Alumni
Dr. Carolina González Gaitán work as a Post-Doctoral Scholar 2017-2018. She was instrumental in developing new reactive silver inks for photovoltaic applications. This included adjusting reactive ink reduction mechanisms, measuring kinetic parameters, and working with other group members to integrate these new inks into their processes.
Brian Zucker worked with us from 2015-2016 under FURI research grant on the sensitization kinetics and corrosion of dissolvable metal supports in PBF and DED printed materials. After graduating in 2016 with is B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering he got a job at Titan Industries to 3D print titanium.
Yiwen Huang after defending his Masters thesis on reactive SiO2 inks he joined Prof. Yan Chen’s research group at ASU to pursue his Ph.D. in autonomous vehicle
Anoosha Murella worked with us from 2015-2016 on a NASA undergraduate research grant studying reactive copper ink systems
Alexander Kim worked with us in 2016 under a FURI research grant on ultra-nearfield electrohydrodynamic printing of SiO2 and Ag reactive inks. After graduating with his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, he is now pursuing his M.D.
Galen Arnold work with from 2015-2016 under a FURI research grant on non-contact methods to precisely locate tip for ultra-fine electrohydrodynamic printing. After graduating with his B.S. and then M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, he got a great job.
Open Positions
Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.
– Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé)
Post-Doctoral Scholar: We are currently looking to hire one post-doctoral scholar that has a strong background in chemistry, chemical engineering, or materials science. Must have a passion for science and be highly self-motivated (i.e. you should work more than I do – and I work a lot).
If submitting a CV for the post-doctoral position, please include a brief summary (1-2 paragraphs) on how you think your background could be used within the projects listed in our Projects page. Be sure to read our Publications from the last year or two to verify that our research mixes well with your future career goals.
Ph.D. Gradate Research Assistants: We currently do not have any open Ph.D. GRA positions. However, these positions pop up randomly (as funding comes in) and I encourage you to send me an e-mail. I will respond letting you know if I have any available positions. As with the post-doctoral scholars, all of my Ph.D. students are expected to be highly self-motivated and doggedly pursue their research.
Master’s students: We do not have paid positions for Masters students; however, I do mentor Masters thesis for projects related to printed materials and devices. I typically give Masters students open-ended, applied science projects based upon the group’s previous fundamental research. You are expected to put in 10 hrs/week of effort on your project/thesis for the first semester and 15-20 hrs/week in your second semester.
Undergraduates: We are always looking for self-motivated undergraduates and typically sponsor 2-4 FURI students every year
