Samuel Cruz

Hometown, Country:

Bogota, Colombia

Academic History Prior to coming to MIT:

B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015

What brought you to MIT?

I found MIT to be a vibrant place with a variety of cutting edge interdisciplinary research where I could opt to participate in fascinating projects outside my general area of training.

What problem are you trying to solve with your current research and what are some possible applications?

I currently study the van der Waals epitaxial growth of thin semiconductor films on graphene for applications in advanced electronic, photonic and photovoltaic devices. The current methods to manufacture thin films for advanced electronic devices encompass high cost. The van der Waals epitaxy method has the potential to tremendously reduce the manufacturing costs through the ability to recycle and reuse the growth substrate.

What interests you most about your research? 

I enjoy the enthusiasm and creativity involved in our projects, from what can sometimes be an iterative idea generation and refining stage, to validation of our hypothesis based on experimental results.

What are your future plans? 

Where I go in the future depends on many factors now. Though I think about it often, I like to be entertained by the possibilities. Notwithstanding, I have considered research in industry or academia.