Alice Xiong

About Me

I am first year PhD student at CalTech who seeks to understand the world better through the lens of condensed matter physics. I am interested in theoretical research in the high temperature superconductors, quantum simulation, and strongly-correlated systems. Although formally a theorist, I also enjoy tinkering electronics and building robots -- and am always excited for collaborations with experimentalists.

Outside of research, I enjoy cooking (lots of spicy food), baking, playing music (flute and French Horn), journaling, caligraphy, and exploring the nature with my teddy bears. Fun fact: My last name means "Bear" in Chinese and that's my favourite animal!

Projects and Ideas

Beyond physics research, I am also passionate about outreach and enabling the next generation of STEM enthusiasts. Volunteering at Penguin Robotics, UBC Physics Circle, CalTech Visiting Scientists, and TAing various physics and instrumentation courses have taught me the importance of patience, innovation, and diversity -- and I hope to further practice these in academia.

Check out my gallery and blog pages for a collection of photos and documents related to my journey from competitive robotics to answering fundamental questions about materials around us. I have participated in a variety of team and individual projects and I hope you will find some inspiration from my work!

Wireless Drone

Capstone design project developing a quadcopter system that is aimed to be entirely passively controlled, wirelessly powered, and self stabilizing.

Some of my most proud accomplishments

Project Stories

Holographic Variational Time Evolution

Undergraduate thesis project supervised by Prof. Drew Potter, developing a semi-classical approach to simulate a 1D quantum system combining variational time evolution and holographic quantum circuits.

UBC ECE Molecular Mechatronics Lab

Soft skin sensor research and readout circuit development, resulting in a publication on a smart roller used in automatic fiber placement machines.

Electronic Polarons and Bipolarons

Summer research in condensed matter theory, supervised by Prof. Mona Berciu, on the feasibility of pump-probe spectroscopy to investigate the role of anion polarizability in Fe-based superconductors.

UBC RoboMaster Competition Team

Mobile robots playing real-life first-person-shooting game through integration of computer vision and precise launching.