The programmable shape transition of a two dimensional sheet to a three-dimensional (3D) structure in response to a variety of external stimuli has recently attracted increasing attention. Among the various shape changing materials, shape memory polymers (SMPs) can fix their temporary shape and/or their length and recover under proper thermal treatment.
Many living organisms undergo conspicuous or abrupt changes in body structure, which is often accompanied by a behavioral change. Inspired by the natural metamorphosis, robotic systems can be designed as reconfigurable to be multifunctional. Here, a tissue-engineered transformable robot is developed, which can be remotely controlled to assume different mechanical structures for switching locomotive function.
One postdoctoral fellow position in solid mechanics/biomechanics at Dartmouth is immediately available in the Chen group at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth (http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/people/faculty/zi-chen/). The subjects of research include, but arre not limited to, cancer cell migration, mechanics of morphogenesis in embryos or plants, and/or bioinspired robots.
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League institution in New Hampshire, cordially invites applications for TWO Research Associate positions to start immediately. Collaborative projects led by Dr. John Zhang and Dr. Zi Chen are sponsored by NIH Director’s Transformative Award and Fortune 500 companies in the Silicon Valley. We are looking for outstanding junior scholars with great research potential who are desirous of independent academic or industrial R&D careers.
Research Associate positions
Helices are ubiquitous building blocks in natural and engineered systems. Previous studies showed that helical ribbon morphology can result from anisotropic driving forces and geometric misorientation between the principal axes of the driving forces and the geometric axes. However, helical ribbon shapes induced by elastic modulus anisotropy have not been systematically examined even though most natural and engineered structures are made of composite materials with anisotropic mechanical properties.
Inspired by the need to develop reconfigurable materials at the micro- and nano- scales that are capable of exhibiting more than one stable configuration, we employed both theoretical and computational models supported by experiments to study the multistable behavior of a Si/Cr microclaw and uncover the mechanical principles involved.
During early development, the tubular embryonic chick brain undergoes a combination of progressive ventral bending and rightward torsion, one of the earliest organ-level left–right asymmetry events in development. Existing evidence suggests that bending is caused by differential growth, but the mechanism for the predominantly rightward torsion of the embryonic brain tube remains poorly understood.
One postdoctoral fellow position in solid mechanics/biomechanics at Dartmouth is immediately available in the Chen group at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth (http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/people/faculty/zi-chen/). The subjects of research include, but are not limited to, cancer cell migration and mechanics of morphogenesis in embryos or plants.
We would like to invite you to submit abstracts to Symposium D-14: Non-linear Response of Highly Deformable Structures within the “Mechanics of Solids and Structures” track at the 53rd Annual Technical Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science (SES 2016), hosted by the University of Maryland, October 2-5, 2016.
The deadline for abstract submission is June 15, 2016.
Symposium Technical Description
Self-shaping of curved structures, especially those involving flexible thin layers, is attracting increasing attention because of their broad potential applications in, e.g., nanoelectromechanical andmicroelectromechanical systems, sensors, artificial skins, stretchable electronics, robotics, and drug delivery.
