The Novel EXperimental & Theoretical Group for Materials Design (NEXT-G Materials Design) is co-supervised by Prof. Wen-Dung Hsu and Prof. Shih-kang Lin at Dept. Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan. Materials thermodynamics and kinetics are our core knowledges. With both theoretical (computational) and experimental approaches, we focus on developing new emerging materials for electronic materials, energy materials, and structural materials. Our computational approaches are first-principles calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, CALPHAD thermodynamic modeling, and phase field simulation; and our corresponding experimental skills include various microscopy, spectroscopy, thermal analyses, and electrical measurements.

• For Electronic Materials, our ongoing projects include advanced electronic packaging technology,environmentally friendly Pb-free solders, electromigration effect in the electronic packaging, and domain wall motion dynamics in electronic ceramics.

• For Energy materials, we focus on developments of anode, cathode, and electrolyte materials in Li ion batteries (LIBs).

• For Structural materials, we are working on continuous casting of high-alloy-steels, tire synthesis, and phase equilibria of refractory superalloys and high-entropy alloys.

Our researches are sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) as well as industries such as China Steel Company (CSC), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering group (ASE), Hitachi Chemical Company (HCC), etc. Current members include the principal investigators, 3 postdoctoral fellow, 35 graduate students (7 Ph.D. and 28 master students) and 14 undergraduate students.

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