#528 Soft Robots Navigating Mazes Without Human Guidance with Jie Yin, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University

Today we’re talking to Jie Yin, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University; and we discuss Jie’s autonomous noodle-shaped robot, the blueprints of soft robotics, and the impact that this research could have on the world.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

About Jie Yin:

Dr. Yin received his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University. Prior to join NC State, he worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT and an Assistant and Associate Professor at Temple University. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award.

Yin group’s research is on both fundamental mechanics and functionality of novel materials and structures at all scales (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=OorAZMgAAAAJ).

About Yin Lab:

Through combined experiments, analytical modeling, and numerical simulation, Yin Group’s research interests are on exploring fundamental mechanics of novel emerging materials and structures at all scales, as well as their broad potential applications in energy, environment, and healthcare.

In particular, Yin Group’s current research focuses on mechanics and design of mechanical metamaterials for achieving unprecedented mechanical properties, harnessing mechanical instabilities in soft materials at small scale for multi-functionality, as well as mechanics guided design of multifunctional soft machines.

Specifically, currently we are working on

– Multifunctional interfacial materials for wetting and water collection

– Mechanics and design of kirigami-based reconfigurable metamaterials

– Mechanics and design of high-performance soft robots