About

My name is Austen Hsiao. I currently live in Happy Valley, OR and I am a graduate student studying computer science at Portland State University. I love computer science and I love chemistry. I spend much of my free time coding and reading web articles. On my less productive days, you'll find me watching 'Seinfeld' and/or trying out a new recipes. For examples of some of the projects I've worked on, please see my GitHub repo.

Background

Fig.1 CIP used in my former research group

I've always had a love for math and science. Math allows us to model the world around us while science provides the reasoning behind it. In 2016, I graduated with a B.S. chemistry from Oregon State university and began working for Intel. I worked as a manufacturing technician, stationed inside the cleanroom fab. Our team was tasked with collecting data. In practice, I ran test wafers on etchers to gauge product quality. At some point, I wanted to be a bigger part of the process-- to take on more responsibilities, but I was capped with only a bachelors. I decided to go back to school. This was not an easy decision for me to make, as I loved the company and especially my coworkers, but I had to prioritize my long-term goals. In 2017, I started graduate school at OSU for inorganic chemistry.

Fig.2 A failed sample.
One of many
Inorganic chemistry is basically the study of materials. What separates our branch of chemistry from material science is that we focus mainly on the inter-atomic processes from which the material properties are derived-- the phrase, "structure-property relationships" is used a lot. This loosely follows the old addage, "form dictates function". Material science, on the other hand, is more concerned with macro material properties such as stress and strain. There is heavy overlap between inorganic chemistry and material science. My research focused on novel magnetic materials; information can be found under the 'projects' section. During my time at OSU, I took 2 coding courses that ultimately redirected my life.

The first, designed to teach Python as a way to accelerate the research process, really drew me towards coding. I used my newfound knowledge to create an application in C++ that would streamline finding new compositions. The user would define a set of parameters for a given atom (size and charge) and the calculator would return a list of elements that should substitute. The second course focused on using MatLab to simulate material properties including heat transfer and diffusion. At this point, I was shocked at the sheer power of computing. Computers bridged the gap between math and science-- we could model the world and examine every moving part. The world of software seems endless.This prompted me to start reading coding material and tutorials.

Fig.3 Substitutional Calculator. It's not pretty, but it's mine
Eventually, I was devoting a few hours a day, between teaching and research, to code. In June 2019, I successfully defended my M.S. chemistry, and used the opportunity to segue into computer science at PSU.

My inorganic chemistry background goes hand-in-hand with computer science. The kind of solid state systems we study at OSU give way to applications largely seen in computers. For example, semiconductors of n- and p- type create the necessary pre-cursors for MOSFETs-- the basis of modern computing. Understanding the nature of electronic materials allows developers to engineer successful designs by leveraging hardware. Afterall, the field of computer science is much more than code.

This brings us to the present day where I have graduated from PSU with my MS in computer science. I still have a long way to go but I absolutely love the field and I strive to improve every day.