Lining Yao
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Engineering·Early-career
Some materials can change shape, stiffness or other properties on their own when they sense heat, water or a signal. This builds behavior into the material itself instead of adding motors and electronics.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Computer Science
- Topics
morphing materials
shape-changing materials
4D printing
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Sep 2029
What they work on
- Develop biodegradable, bioinspired seed carriers that bury themselves at optimal depths after aerial seeding, protecting seeds from herbivores and harsh conditions to improve germination and seedling establishment.
- Build a library of seed carrier designs tailored to different tree species and environments, and create a modeling framework to understand and optimize how carriers bury themselves.
- Establish ecological field test protocols and an evaluation pipeline, guided by forest ecology, to test seed carriers and how they affect forest biodiversity.
- Create a library of morphing mechanisms that change shape or stiffness in response to physical stimuli like wetness or temperature or to digital signals, and package them in a design toolkit for interfaces.
- Develop a fast simulator combining machine learning with finite element analysis, an engineering simulation method, to derive geometric design principles for morphing materials across manufacturing, wearables and creative work.
- Study how a 4D printing design environment for shape-changing food, fashion and decor supports middle and high school girls' STEM learning, confidence and career aspirations, using workshops and ethnographic action research.
More about the research
These projects explore how to design such morphing materials and put them to use. The applications span forest restoration, interactive devices and wearables, and hands-on STEM learning for girls. All three projects pair engineering design with computational tools and testing with real users or real environments.
Why it matters
Self-burying, biodegradable seed carriers could make aerial seeding cheaper and more successful, helping forest restoration and biodiversity. Morphing materials that sense and respond without rigid electronics could lead to conformable medical and wearable devices, such as self-adjusting casts, and to uses in manufacturing and accessibility. Hands-on 4D printing tools could help more girls build confidence and interest in STEM careers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: GCR: Rooted in Nature: Bioinspired Design of Sustainable Seeding Methods to Improve Forest Regeneration
NSF · Oct 2024 – Sep 2029
CAREER: Interactive Morphing Materials
NSF · Jan 2024 – Aug 2027
Fostering Aptitudes, Attitudes and Aspirations of Girls in STEM Through 4D Printing of Robotic Materials
NSF · Jan 2024 – Mar 2027
Closest labs
Shu Yang
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Materials Science
Develop biodegradable, self-burying seed carriers for aerial seeding that dig to a protective depth, shielding seeds from animals and harsh conditions to improve sprouting and seedling survival.
Yiwei Han
University of Mississippi, MS·Engineering·Early-career
Determine how extrusion-printed shape-changing structures affect electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing, a high-resolution method that jets fine droplets with an electric field, and how EHD deposition speed affects resolution and impact damage.
Neda Maghsoodi
University of Southern California, CA·Materials Science
Measure how focused ultrasound produces localized heating, phase transition, deformation, and recovery in programmed liquid crystal elastomers, recording temperature fields, deformation histories, and material properties across ultrasound conditions and material architectures.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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