Out today @NatureComms. Achieving shape shifting from one to many under simple actuation&control is challenging. We report a #transformer-like hierarchical #origami metastructure. It can self-transform into 1000 configurations with only 3 actuation inputs.

Just received official notification of my promotion to full Professor at NC State, effective August 16! Many thanks to my amazing past and current students, mentors, colleagues, friends, and my lovely family for their incredible support throughout my journey! Journey continues!

Congrats to Shu! Well deserved!.

Thrilled to receive the #PECASE award! This wouldn’t be possible without my amazing students and postdocs & the support of ⁦@NSF⁩ MoMS program. Grateful to contribute to #kirigami engineering. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way!

Great opportunity 👍.

This work is in collaboration with the great team, Prof. Joe Tracy at NCSU (co-corresponding author), Prof. Emily E. Evans at Elon Univ., Matthew Clary, @QiFangjie, Haoze Sun, Saarah Cantu, and Catherine Capodanno.

Out today @ScienceAdvances at We @YindingChi report a highly deforamable magnetic kirigami dome metasheet for dynamic shape shifting, yet strong enough for heavy non-magnetic object manipulation without grasping. We thank the funding support from @NSF.

In collaboration with a great team, Jiacheng Guo, Yuanhang zhu @fluidyz, Dan Quinn, and Haibo Dong @uvamae and @YindingChi @YaoyeHong. We thank the supports from @NSF and @USNavyResearch.

Out today @ScienceAdvances highlighted on @ScienceMagazine frontpage. We @HQING0712 report a #mantaray-like soft robotic surface and underwater swimmer that is fast, efficient, maneuverable, and collision resilient, only requiring a single actuation input

RT @NatureMaterials: News & Views: Squirting-cucumber-inspired miniature explosive hydrogel launcher @JieYinLab.

On Sept. 13 (this coming Friday) at 10:00AM (EST), I will give a hybrid in-person and online seminar on “Physically Intelligent Soft Machines” in my home department at NC State. Welcome to join us in EB3 RM2207 or live online at

One application is #MechanicalComputer. When hinges are deformable, it becomes multistable. Recently, we reported @ScienceAdvances applications in stable and high-density #MechancialMemory, mechanical computing, info encryption, and voxelated displays at

The soft actuator has a sub-millimeter thickness and is printed using commercial multimaterial 3D printer Objet 260. Combining patterned printed shape memory polymer and elastomers, it can generate various 2D-to-3D bending and twisting deformation with lockable shapes.

Haitao edited 30s video. The miniature multi-material soft actuators with embedded 2D and 3D microfluidic channel and channel networks can be directly printed in a single print run in high resolution by replacing solid support materials with non-curing fluid without dissolving.

Out today on Adv. Mater. @AdvSciNews We report combining shape memory effect with fully 3D printed miniature soft hydraulic actuators for shape morphing, locking and delicate grasping. First paper of Haitao’s phd work @HQING0712 with Yinding @YindingChi.

In the Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony & Dinner, finally had a picture with Mary.

Warm congratulations to Shu @ShuYangPenn @MSEatPenn for election as 2023 #AAASFellow in Engineering Section! Well deserved!.

Warm congratulations to all the 2024 Laureates!

Flying to Philly to attend the Franklin Institute Symposium in honoring Dr. Mary C Boyce, the recipient of the 2024 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Mechanical Engineering, hosted by Penn MEAM dept on Thursday, April 18. Feel free to join online.

Just came back from the wonderful IEEE RoboSoft workshop and conference right after the MSU visit. Many thanks to Shaoting @lin_shaoting host. It was such a great and highly enjoyable visit! Enjoy the insightful discussions and meetings with colleagues in robotics and control.