Material Dynamics Lab

The Material Dynamics Lab was founded in 2008 to create a research space for faculty, students, and industry members from the fields of architecture and biomedical engineering. Since 2012, the interdisciplinary research hub has expanded upon the collaborative mission and now additionally fosters relationships among team members from numerous areas:
the Department of Physics; the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science; the Department of Biology; the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the Department of Computer Science. The Material Dynamics Lab serves as a vital junction for interdisciplinary innovation and undergraduate research through the application of the design thinking methodology. Projects that emerge from the lab are as diverse as their collaborators. They include the reconstruction of prehistoric “hell ants”; the fabrication of a collaborative robotic fleet of sensor bots; smart material-driven building “skins” for environmental control; and the multispectral camera that takes laboratory-bound tabletop inventions to a handheld design stage that can be tested in the field.