Applied AI for Materials Discovery 

July 27–30, 2026, Live Online

Instructor: Prof. M.J. Buehler (MIT)

We are pleased to announce research and PhD opportunities in Bioinspired Engineering and Technologies, with a particular emphasis on green energy production and robotics.
Our group is currently working on several challenging and high-impact areas, including:
#1. Bio-signal-based realistic control of prosthetics for rehabilitation
#2. Bio-inspired wind turbine blade design for energy harvesting from moving vehicles
#3. Research on e-VTOL systems
#4. Development of UUVs for ocean plastic cleaning

A variational minimum principle for linear elastodynamics of a possibly heterogeneous material without a stored energy function is developed. It involves a change of variables to dual fields, and results in a degenerate elliptic Euler-Lagrange system, even when the primal elastodynamics is hyperbolic. Uniqueness assertions for the dual dynamic and static problems and implications of the degenerate ellipticity are sketched. Some implications pertaining to heterogeneous materials and ones with indefinite elastic moduli are discussed.

We are pleased to share our recent JMPS paper, “Graph-Field Framework for Fracture Mechanics of Architected Lattice Materials.” (link: 10.1016/j.jmps.2026.106729) 

The University of Vermont (UVM) invites applications for an immediate, fully funded Ph.D. position to work with Professor Jihong A. Ma. The position focuses on cutting-edge research in computational organic chemistry and polymer science, with an emphasis on developing fundamental, predictive understanding of structure–property relationships in organic molecules and polymeric materials.

2026 International Conference on Power, Electrical and Energy Systems Engineering (PEESE 2026) will be held in Chengdu, China during October 31 - November 1, 2026. It is sponsored by IEEE, IEEE Chengdu Section; organized by School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. 该会议由电子科技大学主办; 电子科技大学机械与电气工程学院承办；IEEE和IEEE成都分部共同赞助。

Elastomers are among the most familiar and most deceptive solids. They stretch enormously, recover their shape, and appear forgiving in a way that glass or ceramic never would. Yet they are held together by covalent bonds whose intrinsic strength is measured in GPa. The macroscopic strength of rubber-like networks, however, is usually only in the MPa range. How does a material made of very strong bonds become so weak?

The Computational Mechanics and Methods (CM³) Group in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kentucky is seeking highly self-motivated individuals who have great interest in the broad research areas of computational solid mechanics and methods, beginning Fall 2026. Interested individuals should send a detailed CV and official transcripts to Dr.

The Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing and Architected Materials (https://muellerlab.com/) at Johns Hopkins University seeks to fill 1–2 Postdoctoral Fellow positions as soon as possible. Our group lives at the intersection of mechanical engineering, materials science, and computational design to create multifunctional structures and programmable materials. The positions are tentatively for 2 years, with the option to extend based on performance and funding.

Dear colleagues,

I am honoured to be helping restart the EML Webinar Series as Special Editor for Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML).

Our first seminar of the new season will be by Prof. Alain Goriely, University of Oxford, on:

“Tilings and Mosaics: Soft Cells and the Tainted Love of the Nautilus”

Date: Friday, 19 June 2026

Time: 10 am Boston / 10 pm Beijing / 4 pm Paris / 3 pm London

Discussion leader: Prof. Ellen Kuhl, Stanford University