We just had a paper published in Nature Communications: standard semiconductor fabrication can turn flat, wafer-made patterns into stable, curved 3D structures -- a step from flexible toward deployable electronics. doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Tian "Tim" Chen
@ttc.bsky.social
Assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering @UHouston. We design programmable materials.
New paper in @natcomms.nature.com! We used sound waves to vibrate a silicone mold during casting, imprinting tunable patterns of imperfections into thin shells. The shells then let us study how distributed imperfections trigger buckling. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... See reply for videos!
New in PNAS: we 3D-printed "knits" as 3D entangled solids with programmable stiffness & dissipation. We unify the mechanics of traditional and printed knits across materials and scales - down to loops 50 µm across, the smallest knit ever fabricated. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
To my students, thank you all for presenting me the most prestigious award of all!
Reminder to submit your abstract, due May 1, to MS 4.2 - Advances on the Mechanics of Architected Materials, at SES at Purdue, Oct 11-14, 2026. Looking forward to a great lineup w/ organizers @carlosmportela.bsky.social, Lucas Meza, David Restrepo and Christelle Combescure.
Society of Engineering Science (SES) conf. 2026 will be held at Purdue University Oct. 11-14, 2026. Abstract submission deadline: May 1, 2026. Interested in Architected Materials? Consider submitting an abstract to our mini-symposium 4.2! @carlosmportela.bsky.social, Meza, Restrepo, Combescure
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 6mo agoNew contestant for "Greatest correction": "The star rating for this film was corrected on 2 February 2026. A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero." www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
The deadline is literally tomorrow (Jan 31). Last chance!!
Tian "Tim" Chen@ttc.bsky.social · 7mo agoFor those of you interested in the area of Mechanics of Architected Materials, please join us at USNC-TAM 2026 in sunny Pasadena from June 21-25, 2026 (co-organized with @carlosmportela.bsky.social, Shaikeea, and Meza). Submit your abstract to MS502 by Jan 15: www.usnctam26.org/abstract-sub...
My third time at GRC Multifunctional Materials and Structures in Ventura, and I’m giving a talk this time around. It’s gonna be fun.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell (1984)
For those of you interested in the area of Mechanics of Architected Materials, please join us at USNC-TAM 2026 in sunny Pasadena from June 21-25, 2026 (co-organized with @carlosmportela.bsky.social, Shaikeea, and Meza). Submit your abstract to MS502 by Jan 15: www.usnctam26.org/abstract-sub...
It is sad to have read that Frank Gehry died today. At some point, I learnt that we both went to Bloor Collegiate Institute, which was a high school in the west end of Toronto. The school building itself has since been demolished as well... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/a...
Frank O. Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96
nytimes.com
Nikolaos @CornellMAE is giving us @UHEngineering a great talk on sciML!
It was great to host @LaurenDreier from Princeton @UH_Engineering last weekend where we began experimenting with 3D weaving techniques. She gave a great seminar in the department, and gave us a tour of her art pieces at the APS's DFD Traveling Gallery of Fluid Motion @nl_longnecker.
We present a unified, multi-scale framework connecting yarn mechanics, stitch geometry, and fabric-level behavior in a new paper published in Extreme Mechanics Letters www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Another great collaboration with Cosima du Pasquier, Allison Okamura and Skylar Tibbits.
I am … grateful? … that Harvard’s Graduate School Fund reached out to me with a fundraising solicitation yesterday, because it helped me to organize my thoughts on an event near the end of my PhD (2005). Here is my response, just emailed to the fundraisers: (1/9)
This is exciting. Thank you for inviting me!
Lucia Stein-Montalvo@lsmontal.bsky.social · 10mo agoThere's still time to submit an abstract for the 2026 #APSGlobalPhysicsSummit @apsphysics.bsky.social. By Thurs, 10/23: summit.aps.org Trevor Jones and I invite submissions to the @apsdsoft.bsky.social focus session on Crafted Matter. Excited for invited talks from Lining Yao & @ttc.bsky.social !
Concluding our mini-symposium with Julia Greer giving a talk to a full house at ses2025!
On Monday, I am co-hosting three sessions. Come listen to the exciting talks on the advances on mechanical metamaterials!
I am here with my students (Yue Wang and Ilyes Krida) at SES2025 hosted by @gatechengineers.bsky.social in Atlanta, GA! I am co-hosting 6.1: Advances on the Mechanics of Architected Materials, come attend our talks!
This is cool!
Nature Portfolio@natureportfolio.nature.com · 10mo agoA paper in Nature shows that parachute designs inspired by kirigami — the Japanese art of paper cutting to produce 3D designs — are stable and fall close to their target. These findings could simplify parachute manufacturing, reduce costs, and improve accuracy. go.nature.com/473OMmK 🧪
📢 I am so excited to share that I joined @cornelluniversity.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor this August, and our Scalable MetaStructures Laboratory (SCALE Lab) is starting up! Can’t wait to share more as we grow our team and lab—we are hiring!
Lovely to be attending a workshop on the “mathematics and physics of entangled metamaterials” in at Tohoku forum for creativity in Sendai, Japan. Thanks to Sam Poincloux for the invitation!
Our new ACM SIGGRAPH paper has received the Best Paper honorable mention, placing it among the top 5% of papers in an already very selective program. C-Tubes: Design and Optimization of Tubular Structures Composed of Developable Strips More info on the project: go.epfl.ch/c-tubes
Inverse Geometric Locomotion allows discovering optimal articulations for robots in dissipative media. The 4-triangle robot "learns" how to flap its wings to move forward or to rotate. The snake-like robot automatically adapts its articulation when a joint is broken. More info: go.epfl.ch/igl
Congratulations, great news !!
Mark Pauly@markpauly.bsky.social · last yr.Samara Ren received the Eurographics PhD Award at the opening ceremony of the main Eurographics conference in London yesterday. Congratulations!! Samara has established her research group at ISTA working on topics in Geometric Computing and Digital Fabrication: ista.ac.at/en/research/...
