It used to be that academic seminars involved a researcher visiting a host institution to deliver a talk and meet with colleagues (do you remember those days?!). Times have changed, at least temporarily, but this situation is also opening opportunities. In this "talk,"听we will be inviting you for a virtual tour of our Flexible Structures Laboratory (fleXLab) at EPFL in Switzerland. We will show you some of our experimental facilities and share some of our recent research activities, focusing on the mechanics of magneto鈥恆ctive structures. Multiple members of our team will be involved in this tour. Research at our fleXLab focuses is centered in the general area of the mechanics of slender structures, which leverage their postbuckling regime for novel modes of functionality. Methodologically, we recognize scaled high鈥恜recision model experiments as a powerful tool for discovery in mechanics, supported by theory and computation, in a vision of science鈥恊nable engineering and engineering鈥恗otivated science. Recently, we have become fascinated with active structures made out of magneto鈥恟heological elastomers that can be actuated in the presence of an external magnetic field. After introducing some recent advances in experimentation, modeling, and computational for this class of systems, we will present a series of concrete examples. Specifically, we will discuss (i) (re)programmable mechanical metamaterials with programmable memory; (ii) magneto鈥恆ctive beams and Kirchhofflike rods; and (iii) magnetic shells with tunable buckling properties. This virtual lab will involve the participation of the following fleXLab members: Tim Chen (postdoc), Arefeh Abbasi (PhD student), and Dong Yan (postdoc). We are looking forward to "e鈥恏osting"听you at our fleXLab at EPFL.
About听Pedro M. Reis
Institute of Mechanical Engineering - 脡cole Polytechnique F茅d茅rale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Pedro Miguel Reis is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the 脡cole Polytechnique F茅d茅rale de Lausanne in Switzerland, where he is the director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Professor听Reis received a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Manchester, UK (1999), a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics (Part III Maths) from St. John鈥檚 College and DAMTP, University of Cambridge (2000) and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Manchester (2004). He was a postdoc at the City College of New York (2004鈥2005) and at the CNRS/ESPCI in Paris (2005鈥2007). He joined MIT in 2007 as an Instructor in Applied Mathematics. In 2010 he moved to MIT鈥檚 School of Engineering, with dual appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering, first as the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor and, since the summer of 2014 as Gilbert W. Winslow Associate Professor. In October 2013, the Popular Science magazine named Professor Reis to its 2013 鈥淏rilliant 10鈥 list of young stars in Science and Technology. He has also received the 2014 CAREER Award (NSF), the 2016 Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award (Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME), the 2016 GSOFT Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research (APS), he is a Fellow of the APS, and he is the 2021 President of the Society of Engineering Science (SES).