MEMS Seminar: Douglas Holmes, "Engineering with Instability: From Battling Beams to Kirigami Computing"

Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science Fall 2024 Seminar Series welcomes Douglas Holmes, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, for a talk on "Engineering with Instability: From Battling Beams and Kirigami Computing."

ABSTRACT: Engineers design structures to predictably resolve forces and moments through a primary load path in which deformations are small and linear. There is an enormous opportunity to design structures that rely on nonlinearities and instabilities to perform advanced functions and propagate forces in nontrivial ways. This talk will demonstrate how the complex mechanics of coupled nonlinear structures can create novel actuators, artificial muscles, soft robotic grippers, and perform rudimentary mechanical computation.

BIO: Douglas Holmes is an Assoc. Professor in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He received degrees in Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire (B.S. 2004), Polymer Science & Engineering from the U. Mass - Amherst (M.S. 2005, Ph.D. 2009), and was a postdoctoral researcher in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Princeton. Prior to joining Boston University, he was an Assistant Professor of Engineering Science & Mechanics at Virginia Tech. His research group specializes in the mechanics of slender structures, with a focus on understanding and controlling how objects change shape. His work has been recognized by the NSF CAREER Award, the ASEE Ferdinand P. Beer and E. Russell Johnston Jr. Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award, and the Theo de Winter Distinguished Faculty Fellowship.