When David Hoxie ‘14 was in high school, he was discouraged from attending college and pursuing a physics career. It wasn’t until he studied physics at MCLA that he discovered the confidence and support system to pursue graduate school and a career in teaching. That’s what brought him to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2014.
After graduating with a Physics Degree from MCLA, Hoxie worked as a graduate teaching assistant at UAB and received a doctorate in physics in 2023 working in Dr. Krishen Appavoo’s Ultrafast Spectroscopy lab where he employed machine learning to help find more efficient elements of solar cells, LED screens. To find the more efficient devices he had to train machine learning algorithms how to generate their own simulation of nanophotonic phenomena or train the machine learning algorithmics to search through large amounts of data produced by electromagnetic simulations.
Now, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the UAB researching computational simulation and modeling entropic and physics simulations and machine learning for autonomous vehicles and perception.
While reflecting on Hoxie’s educational path, he recognized how monumental his MCLA mentors were in the success of his future.
“My time at MCLA definitely helped prepare me for graduate school,” he said. “My MCLA professors were adamant that we understood why we were doing the work we were doing instead of how to do it. They really understood what was important in physics and I think that really helped me.”
Hoxie noted support from MCLA Physics Professor Dr. Emily Maher and Dr. Adrienne Wootters when it came to applying to graduate schools and exploring teaching positions. He said he always knew he wanted to be a professor and have a lab and is determined to make physics more inclusive and pave the way for a more diversified field, emphasizing the interconnectedness of physics and machine learning.
“That in-depth understanding allowed me to finish my Ph.D. and if I didn’t have that approach that I learned from MCLA, I’m not sure I would have finished my Ph.D. or understood it the way that I did,” he said.
While pursuing his doctorate, Hoxie had the physics background to realize some important aspects have been forgotten in recent literature regarding how some algorithms work such as machine learning techniques with ties to physics, reinforcing the idea that machine learning is rooted in the same principles. This understanding allowed him to push the boundaries and apply his knowledge to his research, uncovering innovative solutions rather than treating machine learning as a "black box."
“I’m looking at finding methods that work better than traditional approaches,” he said. “There are currently limitations with the traditional methods, and a lot of those limitations have been very hard to overcome. We’re looking at this new approach that hasn’t been looked at before.
The connection Hoxie made with his professors while at MCLA has continued. He said throughout his doctorate, when he would get lost in digesting graduate school, he would reach out to Dr. Maher.
“Mentors, more than anything, affect a student’s progress, and that’s one of the things that MCLA offers. You couldn’t not find a good mentor at MCLA,” he said.
Growing up with a learning disability, Hoxie felt the cards were stacked against him, and his success in school, until he attended MCLA.
“MCLA was the first place they showed me how to utilize [the learning disability] instead of letting it define me,” he said. “Nothing is impossible. You just need to find the right mentor and the right group of people. MCLA really gave me the confidence to overcome my challenges.”
