Biography
Sterling G. Baird is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Brigham Young University. His research focuses on autonomous materials discovery through self-driving laboratories, Bayesian optimization, and materials informatics. He leads the Vertical Cloud Lab, which develops cloud-accessible experimentation platforms for accelerated materials discovery, with particular emphasis on autonomous alloy discovery via additive manufacturing for aerospace applications. Prior to joining BYU, he served as Director of Training and Programs and later as Principal Investigator and Staff Scientist at the Acceleration Consortium at the University of Toronto, where he built a prototyping and research facility, developed training programs, and led research in autonomous laboratory methodologies. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Utah, his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and B.S. in Applied Physics from BYU.