AE Seminar: 

"Fold, Morph, and Jump: Nonlinear Mechanics Bridging Nature and Engineering"

featuring

Mingchao Liu

Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham, UK

Thursday, October 29

11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m.

Guggenheim 442

About the seminar:

Elastic instabilities and nonlinear deformations are ubiquitous in nature, enabling remarkable shape transformations and rapid movements. Understanding the mechanics behind these phenomena not only sheds light on natural processes but also opens up new opportunities for designing structures with programmable shapes and functions. In this talk, I will present three interconnected stories illustrating how fundamental mechanics bridges natural phenomena and engineering applications: from the mechanics of plant leaf folding and unexpected folding mechanisms in thin elastic sheets, to the geometric design of structures with programmable three-dimensional shapes, and finally to insect-scale robots powered by cascading elastic instabilities. Together, these examples highlight how nonlinear mechanics can provide new strategies for controlling shape, motion, and functionality in engineered structures.

About the speaker:

Dr. Mingchao Liu is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK, and is currently a Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his Ph.D. in Solid Mechanics from Tsinghua University in 2018. During his Ph.D., he held an Endeavour Research Fellowship at the University of Sydney in 2017. Before joining Birmingham, he was a Newton International Fellow at the University of Oxford, sponsored by the Royal Society (2018–2021), and a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (2022–2023). Dr. Liu’s research focuses on the nonlinear mechanics of flexible structures, connecting insights from natural phenomena to the design of engineered systems, with an emphasis on elastic instabilities, programmable shape transformations, and robotic behaviors.