I want to research in
these fundamental areas...
I want to have an impact in...
Design
Human beings and machines are interacting in new and unique ways in the 21st century. That’s why design is such a vital aspect of engineering research at Purdue, discovering the ideals for mechanical systems, computational models, and human ergonomics.
In one Purdue lab, researchers use toys and video games as a vehicle to study how humans utilize creativity in the smartphone era. In another, faculty are studying materials at the nanoscopic level, to determine how best to manufacture the nanomaterials of the future. Another lab compares traditional manufacturing techniques with open-source culture, mapping out new paradigms for social and technical systems.
Design also collaborates with and strengthens other areas of engineering, like biomechanics, robotics, manufacturing, and vehicles. If you want to build it, first you’ve got to design it.
Faculty in Design
- Adaptive structures
- Mechanical metamaterials
- Robotic materials
- Programmable structures
- Multistable structures
- Structural nonlinearity
- Elastic instabilities
- Structural dynamics
- Nonlinear vibrations
- Uncertainty propagation
- Inverse problems
- Propagation of information across scales
- Optimal learning
- Materials by design
- Growing robots
- Soft robotics
- Bioinspired systems
- Wearable robots
- Haptics
- Soft matter
- Predictive computational tools for biological adaptation processes
- Tissue expansion
- Wound healing
- Reconstructive surgery optimization
- Numerical methods for biological membranes
- Modeling and experimental studies on processing
- Structure property relationships in polymer films and moldings and polymer/metal/ceramic hybrid systems
- Multi-scale robotic manipulation and assembly
- Mobile micro/nano robotics
- Micro/nano aerial vehicles
- Micro-Bio robotics
- Mechatronics
- MEMS/NEMS
- Automation for the life sciences
- Dynamic systems and control
- Mechatronics
- Digital and functional printing and fabrication
- Motion and vibration control and perception
- Embedded systems and real-time control
- Bio-inspired and mechanically adaptive electronics
- Multimaterial additive fabrication
- Soft actuators (artificial muscles)
- Wearable actuators (haptics)
- Polymer design and polymer physics
- Deformation sensors and transistors
- Mechanical systems design
- Analysis and simulation
- Computer aided engineering
- Kinematics
- Dynamics
- Robotics and automation
- Cooperative learning
- Acoustics
- Vibrations
- Active noise and vibration control
- Smart materials
- Intelligent structures
- Thermal stresses, thermal fracture and fatigue of advanced materials, in particular high temperature materials, ceramic coatings.
- Mechanical behavior, design and remodeling of biological tissues, effect of stresses on remodeling, microbiomechanics of cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, tissue engineering
- Wearable biomedical devices
- 'Crack’-driven transfer printing technology
- Scalable manufacturing technology
- Mechanics and materials for flexible/stretchable electronics
- Robotics
- Marine Robotics
- Unmanned Systems
- Energy Autonomy
- Systems Design
- Coordination and Controls
- Bio-inspired designs
- Surface engineering and multifunctional materials
- Convergent Manufacturing for Industry 5.0: hybrid manufacturing processes, heterogeneous materials, and bio-inspired designs
- Systems integration, productization, and production
- Heavy-duty machines: machining, lubrication, and corrosion
- Heterogeneous and hierarchical integration (mechanical-electrical-optical and nano-micro-meso-macro)
- Precision agricultural and food: cellular agriculture, vertical farming, micro-production, and resilience
- Frugal engineering, social innovations, and social equity
- Manufacturing in space
- Computational Design of Socio-Technical Systems
- Secure Design and Manufacturing
- Engineering Design by Self-Organized Virtual Communities
- Integrated Products and Materials Design
- Kinematic synthesis and analysis
- Robotics
- Multi-degree-of-freedom mechanisms
- Human Skill and Augmentation
- Collaborative and Hybridized Intelligence
- Deep Learning of Shapes and Computer Vision
- Human-Robot-Machine Interactions
- Making to Manufacturing (M2M)
- Factory of the Future and Robotics
- Manufacturing Productivity
- Product design
- Conceptual design
- Decision-making and behavioral psychology
- Integrating human judgments into the design process
- Application areas of interest include (but are not limited to): sustainability, healthcare/medicine, and non-traditional applications of design research.
- Contact mechanics
- Stresses, fatigue and friction of rolling/sliding
- Micro-mechanics of boundary and mixed lubrication regimes
- Spall initiation and propagation
- Surface science and damage
- Dynamics of ball and rolling element bearings and rotating systems
- Friction induced vibration and squeal in dry contacts
- Friction and wear of dry and lubricated contacts
- Virtual tribology
- Dry and lubricated fretting wear
- MEMS for in-situ monitoring of tribological contacts
- Discrete element modeling
- Design
- Solid mechanics, multiscale and multiphysics modeling.
- Design of engineering material systems.
- Fracture and fatigue.
- Microarchitectured materials.
- Biomechanics of soft and hard tissues.
- Computational solid mechanics
- Computational geometry
- Microelectronics reliability
- Multiscale superfast 3D optical sensing
- Biophotonic imaging
- Optical metrology
- Machine/computer vision
- 3D video telepresence
- 3D video processing
- Virtual reality
- Human computer interaction
- Environment friendly design and life cycle engineering
- Applications of bio-based materials in manufacturing
- Fast and low-cost detection of pathogenic microorganisms
- Biomass thermo-chemical upgrading for liquid and gaseous fuel
- Deformation, stress, plasticity, fracture
- Multiscale modeling, first-principles, molecular dynamics simulations, and finite element modeling
- In-situ experiments
- Mechanics of redox active materials - Li-ion batteries, Na-ion batteries, all-solid-state batteries
- Mechanics of polymeric materials - organic electrochromics, superelastic organic semiconductors