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The UCF Data-Enabled Photovoltaics (DPV) Group brings together students and researchers from materials science, electrical engineering, optics and photonics, mechanical engineering, computer science and data science. Publication codes (J = journal article, C = conference paper, I = invited presentation, NR = report, B = book chapter) link to the entries on our Publications page.

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Faculty

Prof. Kristopher O. Davis – Director, Data-Enabled Photovoltaics Group

Kris Davis is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Central Florida, with joint appointments in the Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) Center, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) and CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics. Before joining the faculty in 2017 he was a research engineer at FSEC and the crystalline-silicon metrology program manager for the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium. He holds a Ph.D. (2015) and M.S. in Optics from CREOL and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCF, and carried out his doctoral research in part as a visiting researcher at SCHMID Group in Germany.

His research spans thin-film deposition and metallization, surface passivation and carrier-selective contacts, photon management, characterization and metrology of photovoltaic devices, reliability and root-cause analysis of fielded modules, and physics-based and data-driven modeling, including explainable machine learning. He has served as PI or Co-PI on more than 15 externally funded projects and has mentored 10 postdoctoral researchers, 16 graduate students and more than 30 undergraduates.

• Publications: see the Publications page (78 journal articles, 90 conference papers, 29 invited presentations, 10 reports, 2 book chapters, 1 patent)

Current Members

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Here are the current members of the UCF Data-Enabled Photovoltaics Group.

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Graduate Students

Max Liggett – Ph.D. Student (joined Fall 2021)

• Fifth-year Ph.D. student; passed the qualifying and candidacy exams
• UCF Office of Research Doctoral Fellowship, 2021–2022
• Selected for NREL's Hands-On Photovoltaic Experience (HOPE) workshop, 2025
• Research: multiscale characterization of fielded modules; metrology workflows and structure–property featurization for printed copper metallization
• Publications: J67, J66, C89, C80, I28

Kevin Roughgarden – Ph.D. Student (joined Fall 2023)

• Third-year Ph.D. student; passed the qualifying exam
• Research: contact-degradation screening of silicon cells; FIB/SEM microstructure of laser-sintered copper contacts
• Publications: J77

Janice Yeung – M.S. Student (joined Spring 2025)

• Internship at Sandia National Laboratories, summer 2026
• Publications: —

William Thew – M.S. Student (joined Spring 2025)

• Internship at Sandia National Laboratories, summer 2026
• Research: outage-risk modeling and energy-resilience analysis (CARES project)
• Publications: —

Brent Thompson – M.S. Student (joined Fall 2025)

• Internship at Sandia National Laboratories, 2025–present
• Research: UV-fluorescence imaging and data-driven degradation analysis of fielded modules
• Publications: J67, C90, C88

Undergraduate Researchers

Austin Stoetzer – Undergraduate Researcher (joined Spring 2022)

• Research: laser-sintered copper metallization; rapid screening of silicon cell architectures
• Publications: —

Collin West – Undergraduate Researcher (joined Spring 2024)

• Research: printed copper contacts for silicon heterojunction cells
• Publications: —