Yi Cao
Conference Presentations,
Teaching & Science Communication

2026 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit

May 2026    Honolulu, HI, USA    Oral Presentation

"Migration as a Probe—A Generalizable Benchmark Framework for Specialist vs. Generalist Machine-Learned Force Fields in Doped Materials"

2026 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit

May 2026    Honolulu, HI, USA    Oral Presentation

"What is Your Force Field Really Learning? Gaining Scientific Intuition and Guiding Feature Engineering with A Dual-Level Explainability Framework"

2026 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit

April 2026    Honolulu, HI, USA    Oral Presentation

"Overcoming Contextual Tunneling in AI-Driven Materials Discovery: A Causal Framework for Robust Knowledge Integration"

Women in Data Science and AI Symposium

March 2026    Baltimore, MD, USA    Best Poster Award Winner

Women of Whiting Annual Women in STEM Symposium

March 2026    Baltimore, MD, USA    Top 1 Poster Presentation Award

AAAI XAI4Science Workshop

January 2026    Singapore Expo    Spotlight Talk (Top-tier recognition)

"What is Your Force Field Really Learning? Gaining Scientific Intuition with a Dual-Level Explainability Framework"

NeurIPS AI4Mat Workshop

December 2025    San Diego, CA, USA    Spotlight Talk & Travel Grant Awardee

"Migration as a Probe: A Generalizable Benchmark Framework for Specialist vs. Generalist Machine-Learned Force Fields"

AIChE Annual Meeting 2025

November 5, 2025    Boston, MA, USA    Poster

"Dissecting Cr-Doped Interfaces: How Diffusion Dynamics Reshape the Van Der Waals Gap and Shift Sb₂Te₃ Thermoelectric Performance"

Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) Society Annual Conference 2025

October 26-31, 2025    Bellevue, WA, USA    Invited Talk & Session Chair

• Doctoral Symposium - Selected as 1 of 10 PhD students globally; showcased AI applications in predictive maintenance.
• Chaired "Advanced AI/ML for PHM" and "Digital Twins and Aviation" sessions.

Artificial Intelligence for Materials Science (AIMS) Workshop, NIST

July 9-10, 2025    Rockville, MD, USA    Poster

Women in AI 2025

April 9, 2025    Baltimore, MD, USA    Poster Presentation - Award Winner

"Exploring Low-Energy Pathways for Self-Healing Defects in CsPbBr₃—A Computational Study"

Quantum Matters in Materials Science Workshop, NIST

February 19-20, 2025    Rockville, MD, USA    Poster

"Topological Materials Engineering for Next-Generation Thermoelectrics"

Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting 2024

December 1-6, 2024    Boston, MA, USA    [Poster] [DOI] [Post]

"Exploring Low-Energy Pathways for Self-Healing Defects in CsPbBr₃—A Computational Study"

Empower Your Pitch Competition - Finalist

April 8, 2025    Johns Hopkins University    Finalist (1 of 12 PhD students university-wide)

Selected as a finalist among all JHU PhD competitors to deliver a 3-minute pitch presenting my research on AI-driven materials discovery to a broad, non-specialist audience. This competition emphasized clear science communication and the societal impact of research. [Flyer] [Post]

Johns Hopkins Teaching Institute Certificate

May 28-30, 2025    Johns Hopkins University    Teaching Certificate

Completed comprehensive pedagogical training through the JHU Teaching Institute, including coursework on evidence-based teaching methods, inclusive classroom practices, and a micro-teaching project. Received official teaching certificate recognizing proficiency in university-level instruction.