This is my final project.

Professor Vlassak mentioned that last year every single person did a finite element project.  He said he wanted to see more theory projects, so I decided to take him up on that.

I was browsing around one day and happened upon an article that explained that while the Green's function of the laplacian was positive definite, the biharmonic operator's Green's function is not.  Physically, this has significance. 

I work in the Microrobotics lab here at Harvard, where we focus on the construction of biomimetic insect-sized microrobots. Traditional machining techniques are insufficient to create parts on this small scale, so we utlize laser-machined composite materials (such as carbon fiber), which are relatively rigid, and thin polymer films, which are relatively flexible. These materials can be sandwiched together in sheets to create compliant flexure joints, analagous to macro-scale revolute joints.

My undergraduate and master major is engineer mechanics. I have took several courses about this field, like theory of elasticity and mechanics of materials. But my major during master degree is plant bio-mechanics, especially the role of water surface tension and water transport. So I deeply feel that I need to learn solid mechanics again. That is why I choose this course.

I work in Prof. Weitz's group, and may focus on the experimental and theoretical research on soft matters or micro-fluid (cross field). But I think the knowledge and idea of solid mechanics is important no matter what we do in the futher.