Her research group is highly interdisciplinary, working from the fundamentals of material discovery and optics to exploring the clinical and quantum applications.

From 2015 to 2019, she was a Faculty Fellow at Northrop Grumman, and in 2023, she joined the Ellison Institute of Technology as the Sr. Director of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

In this role, she leads a team of scientists and engineers advancing biomedical technologies and agritech instrumentation for global impact.

Armani’s first research experience, supported by an NSF REU, was in Prof. Heinrich Jaeger’s lab studying the self-assembly of diblock co-polymer films.

She used gold nanoparticles to create low power frequency combs, which can be used as high precision light sources in fields such as cybersecurity, chemical sensing and GPS.

[9] The gold nanoparticles increase the light that circulates in the device, allowing the microlaser to operate at a range of wavelengths at high intensity.

[14] She invented a photo-responsive material and created a flexible indicator from a tri-layer polymer-based device, which changes colour when exposed to UV light.

[20][21] Armani is interested in using optical devices for epigenetic investigations, and has developed a label-free sensor that can detect and quantify DNA methylation.

[25] She also designed and demonstrated a new fluorescent imaging agent that provides information about the spatial separation of HER2 proteins on the surface of cancer cells.

She also made a multi-functional molecule that could allow reading and writing of neural activity over large spatial and temporal scales.

[27] During COVID19, her team leveraged their expertise in optics and their existing collaborations with the USC medical school to design and validate a UV-C decontamination system.

Working with a manufacturing company in the LA-area, they built numerous systems and distributed them throughout the LA area, and they posted the schematics and a detailed parts list online.