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

  • Two New Publications!
    We are excited to share two new publications highlighting our research at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, data-driven materials research, and energy harvesting! 🔹 Graph-Structured Hyperdimensional Computing for Data-Efficient and Explainable Process–Structure–Property Prediction J. Ge, A. Vellore, A. Palwe, A. Khan, D. Gorsich, M. P. Castanier, S. Kang, and F. Imani, Information Sciences, 762 (2027), […]
    Posted on October 7, 2026
  • Invited talks @ MS&T 2026 Oct, 5-7
    Dr. Kang will give two invited talks at the Materials Science & Technology 2026 (MS&T26) conference in Pittsburgh, PA! 🔹 Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment, Healthcare and Industry – Session II Femtosecond Laser Nano/Micro Manufacturing for Energy and Functional Materials 🔹 Additive Manufacturing: Design, Materials, Manufacturing, Challenges and Applications – Session IV Multi-Scale, Multi-Material Light-Based Additive […]
    Posted on October 1, 2026
  • Ahsan Khan wins the Fall 2026 PW-IASE Fellowship Award
    We are thrilled to share that Ahsan Khan has once again been awarded the Pratt & Whitney Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering (IASE) Fellowship for Fall 2026, following his successful fellowship award in Fall 2025. Congratulations, Ahsan, on this continued recognition!
    Posted on September 7, 2026

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