Collaborators: Sustainable electronics with Jake Smith and Aniruddh Vashisth
I’m thrilled to be in the booth today, IRL, with Dr. Jake Smith, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and part of the Microsoft Climate Research Initiative, or MCRI. And with him is Dr. Aniruddh Vashisth. He’s an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington and director of the Vashisth Research Lab. Jake and Aniruddh are working on a project that uses machine learning to help scientists design sustainable polymers with a particularly exciting application in the field of the ubiquitous printed circuit board, or PCB. But before we get all sustainable, let’s meet our collaborators!
Jake, I’ll start with you. You’re a self-described “chemist with relatively broad interests across applications” and you’ve done some pretty cool things in your career. Tell us about those interests