The purpose of this thesis is to derive three results in probability theory. The first is a proof that small powers of the normalized absolute characteristic polynomial of a random matrix sampled from either the Gaussian Orthogonal or Symplectic Ensemble converges in law to a Gaussian multiplicative chaos measure. The...
Photochemistry is an inherently interdiscplinary field where very large energies are leveraged for the making and breaking of bonds. My work has broadly dealt with various strategies to control how energy delivered by light can be channeled into useful functions. I developed a strategy to control the chemo- and stereo-selectivity...
Wearable visual systems, such as ego-centric wearable cameras, have failed to integrate into everyday life. We have witnessed the abandonment of wearable visual systems as consumer devices (e.g., Google Glass) and as research tools (e.g., SenseCam). While it is natural for some technologies to die out, visual wearable systems are...
Listeners can experience strong and often positive identification with music. Contemporary research has emphasized the importance of a listener’s own identity, including their sense of self and their desires, when forming such identifications. However, acknowledgments of the listener’s role in the listening experience have failed to productively engage discussions of...
Van der Waals, or layered, materials offer a flexible platform to tune properties via exfoliation down to the single- or few-layer limit; they are at the forefront of cutting-edge materials science and engineering research because of the innumerable ways to tune materials as a function of thickness or composition. Due...
This thesis contains two research projects. The first research project examined the coherent nature of electron transfer in two donor-acceptor dyads – one single acceptor control compound and one dual acceptor molecule of interest. Using transient absorption spectroscopy in the ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared and mid-infrared regions, magnetic field effect experiments, and theoretical...
Today’s romance fiction landscape is drastically different than the early 1980s when its community of readers and writers formalized in the Romance Writers of America and Romantic Times fan magazine. Then, romance fiction was understood to focus on “the interaction between male and female.” Today, romance depicts a variety of...
Flexible sheet metal forming processes possess significant potential in today’s industrial goods market with the advent of the next generation manufacturing paradigm, which put stresses on products customization and cost efficiency. However, due to the unique tooling configurations and forming mechanisms adopted in different flexible sheet metal forming processes, there...
In this dissertation, we aim to develop algorithms that achieve optimality with provable complexity guarantees under various settings in reinforcement learning (RL). Specifically, in Markov decision processes (MDPs), we study single-agent and multi-agent online RL, respectively, and offline RL under the presence of unobserved confounders. Single-agent online RL. We design...
New capabilities in x-ray microscopy have been enabled by rapid advances in synchrotronlight sources and in high performance computing. We present here conceptual and computational
advances in two areas of x-ray microscopy. One involves ptychography, where computation is
used to obtain images from diffraction patterns as a finite coherent illumination...