ABSTRACT: Magnetism is capable of manipulation of objects both large and small, near and far, visible and invisible. This talk will focus on two ways in which magnetic devices are being developed for manipulation. More specifically, I will present two examples in which we are using magnetism to design versatile devices with applications to haptics (manipulating tactile surfaces) and communications (manipulating electromagnetic waves). First, we will consider what magnetic features are required to make reconfigurable haptic interfaces, capable of giving the user the sensation that they are feeling what they are seeing on a visual display; and reconfigurable communication systems, capable of tuning their frequency of operation real-time. Here, I will present our self-assembled magnetic nanostructures with large magnetic moment and anisotropy as a potential solution to both applications. For haptic interfaces, true 3D fidelity in a tactile display requires extremely flexible materials that can also be programmed real-time to physically illustrate what is visually displayed on the screen. I will present how our magnetic elastomer composites can be used to achieve such fidelity. For microwave communication systems, high frequency resonances need to be widely tunable to enable adaptive filtering and more interference-resilient communications. I will present how our high magnetic anisotropy materials can provide adaptability of such sharp filters at frequencies in the tens of gigahertz. The projects discussed will illustrate the impact of magnetism on the design of broadly versatile devices to ameliorate both technology and society in the future.

BIOSKETCH: Amal El-Ghazaly is an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University and an NSF CAREER award recipient. Her work combines magnetism and ferroelectricity to create tunable, versatile electronic systems for telecommunications, sensing and actuation. Prior to joining Cornell in 2019, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California Berkeley, where she was awarded the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2017. Her postdoctoral research explored new possibilities for ultrafast all-electrical switching of magnetic nanodots for faster and more energy-efficient computer memories. She earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where she was funded by both NSF and NDSEG graduate research fellowships as well as the Stanford DARE fellowship until her graduation in 2016. Her Ph.D. research focused on radio frequency devices using magnetic and magnetoelectric thin-film composites for tunable wireless communications. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011.