Announcement Detail

Thursday, November 20, 2025

11am CST

Join via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82464478256?pwd=ZMkJVFdjMJzadgnVWFPqsdUSs4qTaY.1
 

Student Chapter Seminar Series

Inverse design, advanced manufacturing, and applications of magneto-active soft materials

Speaker

Chao Wang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract:

Smart materials that are adaptive, programmable, and multifunctional are redefining how structures interact with their environment. Among them, magneto-active soft materials stand out for their rapid, untethered, and reversible shape transformations under wireless magnetic actuation. Their ability to sense, respond, and evolve dynamically opens transformative opportunities in mechanical engineering, soft robotics, and biomedicine. This talk presents an integrated framework that unites computational optimization, advanced manufacturing, and functional applications of magneto-active soft materials. We first introduce a nonlinear elastic modeling and topology optimization framework for the inverse design of these materials, enabling the simultaneous optimization of geometry and magnetization profiles to achieve targeted actuation responses. Building on this foundation, we introduce scalable fabrication strategies for translating optimized designs into physical realizations, with an emphasis on direct ink writing (DIW) techniques that enable optimized continuous magnetization encoding through efficient path-planning algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate multifunctional applications ranging from programmable soft robots to wireless magnetic devices for mechanotherapy and tissue regeneration, illustrating how the integration of theory, computation, and fabrication accelerates the development of next-generation intelligent materials and adaptive systems.

Bio

Chao Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with a concentration in Computational Science and Engineering. She received her M.Eng. in Civil Engineering with honors from Tongji University. Her research integrates computational mechanics, multi-material and multiphysics topology optimization, and additive manufacturing to design, fabricate, and validate intelligent material systems, engaging in interdisciplinary applications spanning soft robotics, adaptive infrastructure, and biomedicine. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Advanced Science, Additive Manufacturing, and Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, among others. She is a recipient of the ASME Henry Hess Early Career Publication Award and the Alfredo and Myrtle Mae Ang Fellowship at UIUC.