Research Seminar- Dr Evgueni Filipov, Associate Professor, University of Michigan

Talk Overview: 

Traditional arts and crafts such as origami, kirigami, and basket weaving can be used to transform thin sheets into a variety of functional, reconfigurable, and mechanistically tunable three-dimensional structures. This talk will first present my group’s work on creating reduced-order “bar and hinge” models for simulating the kinematics, mechanics, and multi-physics of various thin sheet structures. We then apply these models to explore and design functional engineering systems inspired by origami and by basket weaving. Using principles of origami at the micro-scale we fabricate electro-thermal devices that can self-assemble, rapidly actuate, shape-morph, and interact with miniature matter. At the meter scale, we explore thick origami with uniform thickness that can reconfigure into different shapes and can carry remarkably large loads. Finally, we explore how weaving thin ribbons into three-dimensional basket shapes can create structures and metamaterials with high stiffness and a remarkable resilience to damage from crushing, and buckling deformations.

Speaker Bio:

Evgueni Filipov is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research interests are focused on the underlying mechanics of thin sheet deployable and reconfigurable structures. These mechanics are employed to improve stiffness, functionality, and manufacturing of the folded systems. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has received the Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship (2023), the ASCE EMI Leonardo da Vinci Award (2023), the NSF CAREER Award (2020), the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2018), the Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences (2015), and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Learn more at his lab’s website: http://drsl.engin.umich.edu/