Stephen Exarhos Email & Phone Number

United States

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Working in Professor Peter Bruggeman's group, I am researching fundamental plasma physics/chemistry to control materials processing.

Riverside, California, United States

Develop, test, and maintain instructional equipment for upper division mechanical engineering lab courses.Support Mechanical Engineering Senior Design student research groups with the development and refinement of parts.Produce and machine parts in support of undergraduate courses and graduate research labs in machine shop including 3D printing, CNC milling and lathing, and woodworking.Conduct safety analyses of part machining plans to ensure students, colleagues, and self perform work safely and efficiently.

Riverside, Ca

Weekly lectures guide professional development for senior-level undergraduate students in materials science and engineering. Lecture topics include: project design, surveying literature, ideation, engineering ethics, engineering economics, entrepreneurship, and navigating the job market.Facilitate company and faculty partnerships to mentor five engineering design projects for student groups:- Locally-sourced sustainable materials to support transportation infrastructure- Locally-sourced sustainable materials for thermal & acoustic building insulation- Vapor barrier weldable textile materials- High-pressure, high-temperature, low-porosity sealants- Agglomerated silicon-based anode material for lithium-ion batteriesAdvise on project progress to ensure students meet goals with strict time constraints.

Riverside, Ca

My primary duty is to manage the introductory physics lab sequence for the 2-series (alegebra-based physics) and the 40-series (calculus-based physics for engineers) in the Physics Department at UCR. I am working with colleagues to gradually develop a more pedagogically sound curriculum and a culture of education that will provide students with the optimal chance of success in their college program.

Riverside, Ca

M.Ed. Thesis Project: Developed a descriptive framework that enables articulation of the issue of underrepresentation and disenfranchisement of diverse student populations in physics higher education. The framework underscores the relation between student learning in physics higher education and the cultural context that informs the learning environment through which the education is offered. The framework unites scholarly work addressing similar issues in other fields with the unique paradigm in physics, and provides guidance for further research to understand the issue through a theoretical lens informed by the core tenets of Critical Race Theory.Studying the effect of undergraduate collaborative and interdisciplinary research experience on academic and self-efficacy outcomes — case-study on the seminar program developed by graduate students for graduate and undergraduate students affiliated with research on NSF PIRE “Window to the Brain” research grant.Wrote scholarly essay on how taking cues from the historical evolution of the introductory physics curriculum in American higher education can help us identify techniques to improve physics education in college today.

Riverside, Ca

Worked as a consultant in UCR's Graduate Writing Center. Students would reserve hour-long appointments to meet with me and consult on any piece of writing they were developing. I consulted with students on dissertations, class papers, fellowship applications, faculty applications, and manuscripts being prepared for publication. I also ran a workshop to prepare new UCR graduate students to write their research statement for the NSF GRFP grant.

Riverside, Ca

Ph.D. Dissertation Project: Cu2ZnSnS4 (earth-abundant and inexpensive photovoltaic material) nanoparticle synthesis and sintering into large-grain thin films:Discovered amorphous-oxide “surfactant” process to enhance grain growth and phase uniformity in thin films.(UG Project: Edgar Palmes & Rui Xu) Developed Na2S-solution-dipping technique to easily dope sodium into the material system and enhance grain growth during sulfur-annealing process.Built custom in situ Raman furnace to study effect of phase segregation and phase evolution on grain growth in thin films during sulfur-annealing process.Suppression of oxidation in plasmonic metal-nitride nanoparticles:Developed the idea and procedure to overcoat plasmonic ZrN and TiN nanoparticles with silicon in-flight during non-thermal plasma synthesis.Plasmonic ZrN (earth-abundant, narrow band visible-light absorber material for localized thermal energy generation) nanoparticle synthesis by non-thermal plasma technique as alternative to plasmonic gold/silver/platinum nanostructures:Developed unique synthesis protocol using highly-controllable and precise non-thermal plasma technique.Refined plasmonic absorption between 550-650 nm, making the material comparable in absorption to gold nanoparticles.Synthesis and application of yttria-stabilized zirconia nanoparticles as part of massive interdisciplinary and international collaboration to produce a “Window to the Brain” — a cranial implant to allow light-based diagnosis and therapy of brain tissue without repetitive craniotomy:(UG Project: Crystal Mariano & Rui Xu) Controlling the yttria-doping, particle-agglomeration, morphology, size, and crystalline phase is crucial to create transparent bulk-sintered disks with low optical scattering.(UG Project: Crystal Mariano) Studying the cellular toxicity of yttria-stabilized zirconia nanoparticles with different dopant to aid in eventual FDA approval of the implanted device.

Apple Valley, Ca

The first project I worked on involved computerized optical character recognition of imperfect characters in Java. In particular, I helped develop a decision tree that made it possible to classify different characters in different fonts correctly based on particular features of the scanned character.I also worked on developing a user interface for a mobile software in Java that will be used to aid logistics by tracking RFID tags. This development was iterative, with multiple cycles of development and client feedback.I also worked on adjusting a current software platform to be able to accept and manipulate a new (to the software) kind of data stream. Also on this project, I worked on translating modules into C# based on pseudo-code, outlines, and foreign code in order to include these algorithms in the new software version.

Aided in the development, motivation, and performance of the soccer team, which ended up finishing fourth in Washington state division 3A.

Appleton, Wi

I studied diagnostic techniques for toroidally-confined, low-density, pure-electron plasma under Professor Matt Stoneking. I presented the work I accomplished this summer at the 59th AVS Symposium & Exhibition via a poster.

Master Of Education (M.Ed.), Higher Education Administration & Policy

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Materials Engineering

Master Of Science (M.S.), Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Physics