This group focuses primarily on the study of the structure and properties of materials with emphasis on the crystalline-amorphous transition in a variety of materials including phase-change materials and transition metal dichalcogenides. An integrated approach is used with extensive use of both synchrotron radiation based measurements such as x-ray absorption spectroscopy as well as theoretical approaches based upon density-functional theory. In addition, initial studies are planned on using artificial intelligence approaches to characterizing materials includign deep learning and physical reservoir computing.