Advanced Laser Materials Processing and Energy Technology Lab.
Kang Group research areas: Our advanced laser materials processing research area is composed of light-matter interaction studies, advanced manufacturing and applications. Our Energy technology division is composed of in-situ characterization studies, piezoelectrochemical energy harvesting and lithium ion battery research.

Our group focuses on two research areas: advanced laser materials processing and energy technology.

In advanced laser materials processing, ultrafast lasers are used to understand light-matter interactions and to develop direct-writing techniques to fabricate functional material structures in 2D and 3D. Ultrafast lasers allow confinement in temporal space, in addition to the spatial component, enabling increased control over heat transfer and photon dynamics for various applications. In energy technology, we explore various energy storage materials and perform characterization studies to acquire fundamental understanding of the energy storage mechanism.

The two research areas create a synergy through exchange of fundamental knowledge acquired in each area and by utilizing laser processing techniques as a powerful tool-kit to ablate, modify, or create materials. Our long term goal is to resolve the imbalance between theoretical advancements and experimental realizations and to aid in technology transfer from lab-scale to manufacturing. For example, development in advanced laser materials processing techniques will resolve many problems arising during large-scale manufacturing and the understanding gained from studying the mechano-electrochemical coupling will resolve the mechanical stress evolution issue which is one of the main problems in large-scale manufacturing of energy storage systems.

We THANK our sponsors:

sponsors

Kang group sponsors

News

  • Congratulations to Aziz on His ECS 2025 Travel Grant and Presentations
    Congratulations to Md. Abdul Aziz, who has been awarded a Travel Grant to attend the 248th ECS Meeting (October 12–16, 2025, Chicago, IL). He will be representing our group with both an oral presentation and a poster presentation. Come hear about his exciting research on piezo-electrochemical energy harvesting! Presentation Details: Oral Presentation Abstract #: A01-0015 […]
    Posted on October 2, 2025
  • Ahsan Khan wins the Fall 2025 PW-IASE Fellowship Award
    We are thrilled to share that Ahsan Khan has been awarded the Pratt & Whitney Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering (IASE) Fellowship for Fall 2025. In addition, he has recently passed his qualifying exam and is now an official PhD candidate.Please join us in giving him double congratulations! πŸŽ‰
    Posted on October 2, 2025
  • Two new publications!
    We are excited to share two recent publications from our group! πŸŽ‰ Md. Abdul Aziz, S. Awasthi, and S. KangEvaluating the Mechano-Electrochemical Performance of LCO and LFP Batteries for Low-Temperature Piezo-Electrochemical Energy Harvesting ApplicationsElectrochimica Acta, Article 178047 (2025) β†’ This work explores the mechano-electrochemical behavior of lithium-ion batteries under low-temperature conditions, providing insights into advancing […]
    Posted on October 1, 2025

Contact the Kang Group

Phone: (860) 486-5934
seung_yeon.kang@uconn.edu
Address: University of Connecticut
Engineering Science Building #511
181 Auditorium Rd.
Storrs CT 06269