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For more see the link:
Prof. Shengqiang Cai
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering Program
University of California at San Diego
Biography:
In response to a stimulus, soft materials, such as hydrogels and elastomers, can deform dramatically. This deformation provides most of their functions. Cai and his colleagues have formulated theories to better understand the interplay of mechanics and other fields, including chemistry, electric field and temperature, in soft materials. He has also studied several ways of using soft active materials to convert energy in different forms. Cai is currently investigating how to design and optimize structures made of soft materials to provide diverse functions, including harvesting energy, regulating fluid and desalinating salt water. He is also looking into using the mechanical instability phenomena associated with large deformation in soft materials to guide electromagnetic waves and provide other functions.
Prof. Cai was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2011 to 2012.
Education:
2007 - 2011 PhD Mechanical Engineering, Harvard University
2004 - 2011 MS Solid Mechanics, University of Science & Technology of China
2000 - 2004 BS, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Science & Technology of China
Research Interests:
Solid Mechanics;
Mechanics of soft materials;
Mechanics of biological materials;
Active materials and structures;
Fracture and fatigue properties of polymer Instability;
Multifield coupling phenomena
Professor Cai is head of the Cai Group at UCSD:
Soft materials can be easily found in biological systems and daily life. But, the research on the mechanics of soft materials is still in a nascent stage. Our research aims to understand some fundamental mechanics of various soft materials, such as large deformations and instabilities in elastomers, kinetics in polyelectrolytes, optical-mechanical coupling effects in liquid crystal elastomers and the growth of biological materials. We are also interested in exploring diverse engineering applications of soft materials.
Selected Publications:
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