Miranda Schwacke

Miranda Schwacke is a PhD candidate in materials science and engineering whose research seeks to develop new energy-efficient electrochemical programmable resistors, or electrochemical random-access memory (ECRAM), for physical implementations of neural networks that mimic the connectivity of the brain. Her first MathWorks Fellowship enabled her to explore new approaches to informed ion selection and materials design and to demonstrate a proof-of-concept for ECRAM using Mg2+ as the working ion. This work showed how careful choice of the ion-channel material system can improve device stability and compatibility with silicon processing. Her second MathWorks Fellowship will enable Miranda to explore the importance of channel microstructure in ECRAM devices. Her recent results suggest that ion and electron insertion into polycrystalline WO3 can strongly impact grain boundary space charge resistances, and this can be the dominant resistance modulation mechanism in ECRAM devices for low channel ion concentrations. Miranda’s work, which draws significantly from MATLAB tools, is yielding novel insights with important implications for the study and application of ECRAM devices and could inform the development of next-generation brain-inspired technologies.