Public Research Seminar by Sustainable Energy and Environment Thrust, HKUST(GZ) - Advanced Micro/Nano Manufacturing of Architectured Metamaterials
Recent advances in data-driven and interconnected manufacturing have the potential to revolutionize the design and processing of multifunctional elements with unprecedented precision and heterogeneity. These elements include architectured metamaterials with integrated functions that are highly desirable for a broad range of applications in confined spaces, such as impact absorption, thermal management and chemical processing, optical transparency, structural morphing, and real-time monitoring and repair. To fully realize the potential of these multifunctional elements, an integrated knowledge base is crucial for setting up, steering, and analyzing their functionality. This requires combining different geometries and choices of digital voxels with domain-specific design constraints, as well as a library of accurate designer voxels with predictive analytics that capture essential mechanical and physical properties based on the microstructure.
In this seminar, we will explore the three-dimensional microfabrication techniques and expertise required to design and fabricate these architectured metamaterials for combined functions, including energy absorption, actuation/morphing, and micro-scale bioreactors for tissue engineering. I will also discuss our effort on exploiting the high optical and sonic transparency of hydrogel actuators in water to achieve leptocephali-like natural camouflage in both optical and sonic environments. We experimentally show that the metagel device offers efficient implementation in broadband underwater ultrasound detection with the benefit of being soft and tunable.
Professor Fang recently joined the University of Hong Kong as Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Fang earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics from Nanjing University, China; and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. From 2011 to 2022， He was on the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he was promoted to full professor with tenure since 2018. Professor Fang teaches and conducts research in the area of micro/nanotechnology. Professor Fang’s research programs have focused on scalable manufacturing processes for wave functional materials. His work was highlighted by public media such as Discovery Channel and Popular Science, and raised significant public interest in the search of new metamaterials beyond optical waves. His research on nanoarchitectured metamaterials was highlighted among the top 10 Emerging breakthrough technologies of the year 2015. His recognitions also include the OSA Fellow (2021); ASME Chao and Trigger Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (2013); the ICO prize from the International Commission of Optics (2011); the NSF CAREER Award (2009) and MIT Technology Review Magazine’s 35 Young Innovators Award (2008). Professor Fang’s complete list of journal publications can be found on Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=PcoqNjgAAAJ
For inquiries, please contact Miss Suggi WU (+86-20-88332966, suggilswu@hkust-gz.edu.cn)