Research Area
The Mechanics Group aims to analyze the dynamic/static behavior of various structures like automobile, electric and electronics, heavy industry, steel manufacturing, and transportation from a viewpoint of mechanics, and, as a result, to optimize system design, production and operation. The state-of-the-art research thrusts include structural, vibrational, elastic wave mechanics, smart structure (piezoelectric/magnetostriction) analysis, multi-physics & multi-scale (nano, micro, macro) mechanics, health diagnosis and prognosis through contemporary techniques like advanced experiments and simulations, sensors, statistics, artificial intelligences, etc. This adds a great deal of values to engineering practices, such as improvement of weight, functional attributes, quality, reliability, and durability through shape/size/phase optimization techniques.
Research fields are structural analysis and design based on computational mechanics such as finite element method. We focus on the design and analysis of metamaterials and computational technique of biostructures based on DNA and proteins. We also focus on the development and application of multiscale simulation to simulate the complex mechanical behavior of structures in various physical systems.
Reflecting the concepts necessary for diagnosing and predicting mechanical system failures in education, classes such as Mechanical Strengths and Behaviors of Solid, Mechanics and Design, Design of Mechanical System Design Project (undergraduate school), Probabilistic Engineering Analysis and Design (graduate School) are opned.
Our research in the Transformative Architecture Laboratory is directed towards designing and developing advanced architected systems for various engineering applications, ranging from aerospace structures, biomedical devices, robotics, to energy and environments. Such advanced architecture will allow us to manipulate their mechanical properties and dynamic responses at will, which will lead to a paradigm shift in material and structural design.
Our research activities focus on robot manipulation, motion optimization, control, learning and design. The unifying thread in our approach is the use of geometric methods, particularly concepts and tools from differential geometry and Lie groups. Our current research is focused on real-time algorithms for optimal trajectory generation, sampling-based methods for motion planning subject to constraints, and the leveraging of machine learning techniques for robot motion learning.
We aim to understand how living systems are organized from molecules to cells and tissues and how high-order functions emerge from interactions between individual components. In doing so, we employ diverse quantitative techniques to probe mechanics and dynamics of living systems, and analyze them by applying principles of soft matter physics and mechanics. Building on this knowledge, the long-term goal of our lab is to design and produce biological systems that can perform desired functions in diverse engineering applications.
In the Precision Bioinstrumentation (PB) lab, we develop biomedical technologies that leverage the physical properties and mechanical responses of living cells, such as cell mass, volume, stiffness and shape. We employ MEMS-based biosensor and optical biochips and pioneer next-generation healthcare devices for diagnosing and monitoring diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders.
Our primary research interest lies in the development of rapid, flexible, and scalable additive micro/nano manufacturing technologies to overcome critical technological barriers of the current manufacturing and to explore new engineering applications by studying fundamental physics and mechanics of soft active materials.
In this laboratory, our focus lies in implementing distinctive solid properties like negative density or negative stiffness using artificial structures, referred to as metastructures, and applying them across diverse engineering domains. To accomplish this goal, we conduct research on microstructure design, various multiphysics analyses, and experimental validation.
