Shayan Doust

What inspired you to pursue this project and join the DAMC CDT?  

I come from a theoretical Computer Science background, with focus during my undergraduate and postgraduate projects on computer vision in the field of medical imaging. Living in a computational and data driven world, most fields — whether it be Physics, Engineering, et cetera — have the strong drive in acquiring Computer Scientists and Mathematicians, to drive forth new algorithmic research. Indeed, I saw staying solely in medical imaging and not exploring further fields early on in my academic life as a disadvantage. As such, when I realised there was a PhD position open for this CDT, I applied for it. Chemistry is fascinating to me; Everything material we touch, operate and use, is down to advancements in Chemistry. Furthermore, doing a CDT in a city I'm already familiar with is a fantastic social opportunity.

What is your research project about, and what impact do you hope it will have?     

The sheer number of atoms and ions, and the need to arrange them within a periodic-representative finite space (i.e. a unit cell), make stable materials discovery for crystal structures a non-convex, highly complex, factorially large, and time-consuming problem. Consequently, my research is motivated to discovering and exploiting novel patterns & properties, and developing new algorithmic strategies that efficiently traverse this vast, and often information-incomplete, exploration space whilst ensuring the solution reached is globally optimal.

What has been the most exciting or rewarding part of your PhD journey so far? How does your project benefit from being part of an interdisciplinary CDT like DAMC?  

Meeting individuals in the CDT who are also adjacent in computational Chemistry like I am. As the CDT is interdisciplinary, CDT activities such as the winter school, talks and seminars have shown me a unique application of Computer Science in a field which is hot in research. Furthermore, as a non-chemist, the CDT is a valuable asset towards collaborative work and understanding. Lastly, I have had the pleasure of helping run tutorials and labs for CS undergraduate and postgraduate modules.