Kevin Kaufmann

Senior Project Engineer at Oerlikon

San Diego County, California, United States

About

Materials engineer focused on developing and applying data science and machine learning techniques to the design, synthesis, and characterization of materials. Also interested in the development of high-throughput experimental materials discovery pipelines.

Experience

  • Senior Project Engineer at Oerlikon
    Jul 2021 - Present · 5 yrs 1 mo

  • UC San Diego (9 yrs 10 mos)
    • PhD Candidate
      Apr 2019 - Jun 2021 · 2 yrs 3 mos

      - Decreased computational evaluation of high entropy ceramics and alloys from 9+ days per composition to less than 1 day for hundreds of candidate materials using machine learning - Applied knowledge gleaned from a trained machine learning model toward the design of high entropy ceramics with tailorable oxidation performance; reduced oxide thickness by up to 60% - Led multi-disciplinary team to develop deep learning models for extracting information from EBSD diffraction patterns to reduce constraints on prior knowledge about the material - Validated the deep learning model for EBSD pattern analysis was robust to variable acquisition parameters using new experimental data and investigation of feature importance - Complete materials development from thermodynamic modeling to synthesis and characterization for bulk metallic glasses, high entropy ceramics, and high entropy alloys

    • PHD Student
      Apr 2016 - Apr 2019 · 3 yrs 1 mo

      - Complete materials development from thermodynamic modeling to synthesis and characterization for bulk metallic glasses, high entropy ceramics, and high entropy alloys

    • Graduate Student Researcher
      Sep 2015 - Apr 2016 · 8 mos

      - Developed micromotor-based platforms for the detection, isolation, and degradation of chemical and biological warfare agents that could be applied covertly and in remote locations - Developed a hybrid enzyme plus micromotor-based method for increasing carbon dioxide sequestration rates by 10-fold compared to the free enzyme and could enable large-scale removal of CO2 from the environment for storage as solid CaCO3. The solid support of the micromotor also improved enzyme stability with varying pH and temperature

  • Graduate Research Fellow at National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship
    May 2017 - Jun 2021 · 4 yrs 2 mos

  • Language Editor at Biocatalysis - De Gruyter
    Aug 2014 - Dec 2019 · 5 yrs 5 mos

    Biocatalysis is a high quality journal designed to have impact on the field of biochemical catalysis for environmental, health, and energy applications within the scientific, academic and industrial sectors. I served as one of two Language Editors for this journal.

  • Numismatist at Americana Rare Coin
    Jul 2015 - Jun 2019 · 4 yrs

    Perform a broad range of duties part time including purchases and sales agent with dealers and the public, inventory management, customer assistance, and brand promotion.