MEAM Seminar: “Propulsive Advantages of Coordinating Multiple Jets by Colonial Marine Organisms”
Salps and siphonophores are widespread marine animals that occur in centimeters to meters-long colonial chains and employ multiple, pulsed swimming jets. We use a combination of approaches including in situ […]
MEAM Seminar: “Natural Structural Materials: Lessons on Toughening Mechanisms, Weight Reduction, and Multifunctionality”
Structural materials that are damage-tolerant, lightweight, multifunctional, and sustainable are highly desirable for many engineering applications. Such combinations of properties are often found in the biological world. Organisms from nature […]
MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Controlling Contact Transitions for Dynamic Robots”
Legged robots, robotic manipulators, and their combined embodiment as humanoid robots have received considerable attention across both academia and industry. However, with few notable exceptions, state-of-the-art demonstrations are significantly less […]
MEAM Seminar: “Controlling Adhesion and Friction of Soft Interfaces by Meso-Scale Structures”
Discoveries of unique adhesive and frictional properties in biological attachment systems have, over the past two decades, demonstrated how near-surface architecture at lengths between the molecular (a few nm) and […]
MEAM Seminar: “Elasticity of Fluids in Nanopores: Molecular Modeling and Ultrasonic Experiments”
Fluids confined in nanopores are ubiquitous in nature and technology. In recent years, the interest in confined fluids has grown, driven by research on unconventional hydrocarbon resources — shale gas […]
MEAM Seminar: “Systemic Disadvantages for LGBTQ Professionals in STEM”
Researchers have documented race and gender bias in STEM for decades, but there has been little parallel examination of LGBTQ status as an axis of inequality. How do LGBTQ-identifying STEM […]
MEAM Seminar: “CRISPR-Programmed Microfluidic Devices for DNA Detection, Computing and Digital Display”
CRISPR is a gene editing technique that allows researchers to quickly and precisely edit genome sequences. Beyond gene editing, CRISPR-Cas systems can be repurposed as a programmable platform for other […]
MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Enhancing Photophoretic Levitation using Three-dimensional Structures for Flight in the Mesosphere and on Mars”
Current propulsion and flight mechanisms limit atmospheric observations. The mesosphere is too dense for satellites and too thin for typical planes and balloons, with similar conditions found in the Martian […]
MEAM Seminar: “Programmable Strain-responsive Biopolymer Networks Adapt to High Magnitudes of Mechanical Loading”
Biopolymer hydrogel materials typically exhibit relatively low range of programmable modulus less than 100 kPa, which limits their biomedical applications, such as in articular cartilage and synthetic joints, where tissues […]
MEAM Seminar: “Impulse-Induced Dynamic Transitions in Flexible Mechanical Metamaterials: Harnessing Nonlinear Wave Dynamics for Advanced Engineering Applications”
Mechanical metamaterials are artificially designed structures that offer unique properties like negative Poisson’s ratio, tunable stiffness, and advanced thermal characteristics. While the static properties of mechanical metamaterials have been widely […]