research

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Micro Flier

Mechanical Engineering research ranges from fundamental work in solid and fluid mechanics to diverse studies in materials, mechanical systems, and biomechanics.

Key areas of investigation include investigating the mechanics of materials, structures, and geophysical and biological systems involved phenomena such as elasticity, plasticity, buckling, fracture, and wave motion. Characterizing the performance of such systems often depends on understanding behavior at several scales, requiring, for example, the mechanics of dislocations and other imperfections, grain boundaries, interfaces, and material heterogeneity.

Research is strongly interdisciplinary, with many connections to Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Chemistry.

Research Groups

Applied Mathematics Lab
 Harvard Robotics Laboratory
Microrobotics Lab
Neuromotor Control Lab
Stone Fluids Group
Vlassak Group
Weitz Soft Condensed Matter Group

Areas of Focus

Fluid Dynamics

  • complex fluids
  • suspension mechanics
  • low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics
  • microfluidic systems
  • drainage in foams
  • flows manipulated by electric fields (e.g. electrokinetics, electrospinning)
  • coating flows
  • multiphase flows
  • systems combining viscous and elastic elements

Researchers

Brenner, Michael P.
Mahadevan, L.
Stone, Howard A.

Robotics

  • role of sensing, mechanical design, and control in manipulation
  • the mechanics of manipulation, tactile sensing and display devices and algorithms
  • teleoperation and supervisory control
  • motion description languages
  • medical robotics, with projects in image guidance, haptic feedbacks, and interactive control modes for robotic surgery

Researchers

Brockett, Roger W.
Howe, Robert D.
Smith, Maurice A.
Wood, Robert J.

Solid Mechanics

  • mechanics and thermodynamics critical to understanding the design and manufacture of engineered materials and structures for a variety of applications including electronic packages, thermal barrier coatings, thin films, and multilayers with a focus on interfaces, high-temperature composites, micromemchanical devices, and plate and shell structures at at both meso- and macro- scales
  • mechanics at the cellular and molecular levels
  • earthquake faulting research, with special emphasis on topics such as the mechanics of frictional sliding and dynamic fracture

Researchers

Hutchinson, John W.
Mahadevan, L.
Rice, James R.
Suo, Zhigang
Vlassak, Joost J.