Abstract: Living organisms are often equipped with adaptive microarchitectures that actively modulate motion, transport, and physical properties through versatile coordinated reconfigurations. Synthetic efforts to mimic such dynamics mostly rely on multimaterial designs to add ever more complexity, which, aside from being technically complicated, narrow opportunities for the bottom-up self-integration seen in living systems. In this talk, I will present orthogonal approaches to this trend to design simple, single-material microstructures capable of complex reconfigurations via bottom-up self-regulation. First, I will demonstrate how diverse non-reciprocal motions emerge in a photoresponsive micropost composed of azobenzene-based liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). Leveraging opto-chemo-mechanical feedback mechanisms, I will show how a series of spatiotemporal symmetry breaking events enable emergent collective behaviors in micro-arrays. Next, I will discuss how structural interconnectivity further unlocks unusual deformations in cellular microstructures. Lastly, I will introduce strategies for transforming the fundamental topologies of cellular structures through multiscale polymer-liquid interactions. This material platform provides insight into the future of “life-like” soft materials characterized by multifunctionality, adaptability, feedback, and out-of-equilibrium dynamics, with broad implications for autonomous multimodal actuators in soft robotics, biomedical devices, and energy harvesting.
Shucong Li is a Postdoctoral Scholar at MIT Mechanical Engineering, working with Prof. Zhao on multiscale structural control of hydrogel materials (phase separation, 3D printing) with exceptional permeability and diffusion properties, for applications in sustainability and healthcare. Before, Shucong worked with Prof. Aizenberg at Harvard University and earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2022. Her doctoral research centered on the synthetic construction of adaptive soft materials using bio-inspired design principles, with the goal of realizing new autonomous functions in areas of soft robotics, healthcare, and sustainability. She is the recipient of the PMSE Future Leader Award, Caltech Young Investigator Award, and Foresight Fellowship.