News ‒ FLEXLAB ‐ EPFL

2023
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2020
2019
2018
2017

17/12/2023
Arefeh’s paper “Leveraging the snap buckling of bistable magnetic shells to design a refreshable braille dot” is published in the Advanced Materials Technologies Journal[journal link].
01/12/2023
Luna’s paper “Fluid-structure interactions of bristled wings: The trade-off between weight and drag” is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface[journal link].
01/12/2023
Michael’s paper “Twisting instabilities in elastic ribbons with inhomogeneous pre-stress: a macroscopic analog of thermodynamic phase transition” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids[journal link].
21/11/2023
Fani’s’s paper “Defect-Defect Interactions in the Buckling of Imperfect Spherical Shells” is published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics[journal link].
15/11/2023
Ubamanyu Kanthasamy (from Sri Lanka) joins the fleXLab as a Postdoc.
07/11/2023
Paul’s paper “The strength of surgical knots involves a critical interplay between friction and elastoplasticity” is published in Science Advances[journal link].
12/10/2023
Fani’s paper “Probabilistic buckling of imperfect hemispherical shells containing a distribution of defects” is published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A[journal link].
01/09/2023
Javier Sabater (from Spain) joins the fleXLab as a Ph.D. student.
26/06/2023
Arefeh’s paper “Snap buckling of bistable beams under combined mechanical and magnetic loading” is published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A[journal link].
01/06/2023
Arefeh’s paper “Comparing the buckling strength of spherical shells with dimpled versus bumpy defects” is published in Journal of Applied Mechanics[journal link].
01/02/2023
Gilad Yakir (from Israel) joins the fleXLab as a Ph.D. student.
21/01/2023
Sam’s paper “Indentation and Stability of Weaved Domes” is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters [journal link].

03/11/2022
Dong’s paper “A reduced-order, rotation-based model for thin hard-magnetic plates” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [journal link].
26/08/2022
Luna’s paper “Not gone with the wind: Active microscale flight with highly porous bristled wings” is published in Matter [journal link].
26/08/2022
Pierre’s paper “Tapered foils favor traveling-wave kinematics to enhance the performance of flapping propulsion” is published in Physical Review Fluids [journal link].
26/08/2022
Claudio’s paper “Flexural-tensegrity snapping tails for bio-inspired propulsion in fluids” is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters [journal link].
27/05/2022
Tomohiko’s paper “Exploring the inner workings of the clove hitch knot” is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters [journal link].
27/05/2022
Matteo’s paper “A geometrically exact model for thin magneto-elastic shells” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [journal link].
27/05/2022
Paul Grandgeorge’s paper “An elastic rod in frictional contact with a rigid cylinder” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [journal link].
27/05/2022
Tomohiko’s paper “A Kirchhoff-like theory for hard magnetic rods under geometrically nonlinear deformation in three dimensions” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [journal link].
27/05/2022
Dong’s paper “A comprehensive framework for hard-magnetic beams: Reduced-order theory, 3D simulations, and experiments” is published in the International Journal of Solids and Structures [journal link].

01/11/2021
Luna Lin (from the US) joins the fleXLab as a Postdoc.
22/10/2021
Changyeob’s paper “Smooth triaxial weaving with naturally curved ribbons” is published in Physical Review Letters [journal link] (Editor’s Suggestion & Cover Story [pdf], Physics Synopsis [html], Nature Reviews Physics Research Highlight [html]).
01/10/2021
Eduardo Gutiérrez Prieto (from Spain) joins the fleXLab as a Ph.D. Graduate Student.
15/08/2021
Michael Gomez (from the United Kingdom) joins the fleXLab as a Postdoc.
25/06/2021
Arefeh’s paper “Probing the buckling of pressurized spherical shells” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [journal link].
10/06/2021
Samuel’s paper “Bending response of a book with internal friction” is published in Physical Review Letters [journal link].
01/06/2021
Fani Derveni (from Greece) joins the fleXLab as a Postdoc.
20/05/2021
Dong’s paper “Magneto-active elastic shells with tunable buckling strength” is published in Nature Communications [journal link].
14/04/2021
Paul Grandgeorge’s paper “Mechanics of two filaments in tight orthogonal contact” is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [journal link].
25/01/2021
Paul Johanns’s paper “The shapes of physical trefoil knots” is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters [journal link].
20/01/2021
Tian’s paper “A reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial with stable memory” is published in Nature [journal link] (Nature News and Views [html] and EPFL News [html]).

09/11/2020
Changyeob’s paper “Finite element modeling of tight elastic knots” is published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics [journal link].
04/09/2020
Postdoc opening at our lab in the area of the mechanics of slender structures! Details [here].
25/08/2020
Matteo’s paper “Deformation of porous flexible strip in low and moderate Reynolds number flows” is published in Physical Review Fluids [journal link].
03/03/2020
Dong’s paper “Buckling of pressurized spherical shells containing a through-thickness defect” is published in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [journal link].

02/10/2019
Matteo’s paper “A weak form implementation of nonlinear axisymmetric shell equations with examples” is published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics [journal link].
16/08/2019
Elizabeth’s paper “Hydrodynamic loading of perforated disks in creeping flows” is published in Physical Review Fluids [journal link].
28/06/2019
Anna’s paper “Evolution of critical buckling conditions in imperfect bilayer shells through residual swelling” is published in Soft Matter [journal link].
29/05/2019
Mark’s paper “Programmable aerodynamic drag on active dimpled cylinders” is published in Advanced Engineering Materials [journal link] and highlighted in Advanced Science News [news link].
29/03/2019
New projects open for EPFL students. Check them out [here].
15/02/2019
Arefeh Abbasi (from Iran) joins the fleXLab as a Ph.D. Graduate Student.
7/1/2019
Samuel Poincloux (from France), Armelle Keiser (from France) and Tian Chen (from Canada) join the fleXLab as Postdocs.

4/12/2018
Comment by Pedro Reis, Fabian Brau and Pascal Damman “The mechanics of slender structures” is published in Nature Physics. [journal link].
16/11/2018
Changyeob’s paper “Rigidity of hemispherical elastic gridshells under point load indentation” is published in JMPS. [journal link].
26/10/2018
Joel’s paper “Designing soft materials with interfacial instabilities in liquid films” is published in Nature Communications. [journal link].
17/10/2018
Joel’s paper “Solid structures generated by capillary instability in thin liquid films” is published in Physical Review Fluids. [journal link].
9/7/2018
Postdoc opening in our fleXLab @EPFL in the area of fluid-structure interaction at high Reynolds number, with a focus in experiments. The goal is to study the mechanisms underlying the coupling between fluid flow and multi-component morphing structures. Details [here].
1/6/2018
Pedro Reis gives a plenary talk at the Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference 2018 that took place at MIT. The title of his talk was Shell Buckling Revisited: “Everyone loves a buckling problem!”
1/6/2018
Changyeob starts his summer study at EPFL. Bartosz Kaczmarski from Princeton University joins as a Visiting Undergraduate.
1/4/2018
Paul Johanns (from Luxembourg) joins the fleXLab as a Ph.D. Graduate Student. Tomohiko Sano (from Japan) joins as a Visiting Postdoc.
29/3/2018
A postdoc position is opening in Applied Mathematics at EPFL in the group of Prof. John Maddocks to work on the mechanics of (1) helices (in collaboration with the group of Prof. John Kolinski) and (2) elastic knots (in collaboration with our group). More details can be found here: http://lcvmwww.epfl.ch/jobs.php and http://imechanica.org/node/22266.
19/3/2018
Khalid’s paper “Patterns of carbon nanotubes by flow-directed deposition on substrates with architectured topographies” is published online in Nano Letters. [journal link].
1/3/2018
Paul Grandgeorge (from France) joins the fleXLab as a Postdoc.
8/1/2018
Anna Lee (from Korea) and Mark Guttag (from the USA) join the fleXLab as Postdocs.
1/1/2018
Pedro Reis initiates his 3-year appointment as Associate Editor of the ASME’s Journal of Applied Mechanics.
1/1/2018
Happy New Year: 2018 is going to be amaaazing!

28/12/2017
Mark’s paper “Aeroelastic deformation of a perforated strip” is accepted for publication in Physical Review Fluids. More soon.
26/12/2017
Mark’s paper on “Active aerodynamic drag reduction on morphable cylinders” is published in Physical Review Fluids. [journal link].
20/12/2017
Changyeob’s paper on “Form finding in elastic gridshells” is published in PNAS. [journal link]
19/12/2017
Mark Guttag successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis “Aerodynamic Drag on Deformable and Active Structures in High Reynolds Number Conditions”. The members of the thesis committee were Mary Boyce, Mark Drela, Peko Hosoi and Xuanhe Zhao. Congrats Dr. Guttag!
18/12/2017
Anna Lee successfully defends her Ph.D. thesis “Fabrication and Buckling of Thin Spherical Shells Containing Precise Geometric Imperfections”. The members of the thesis committee were Pedro M. Reis, Rohan Abeyaratne, David Parks, and John W. Hutchinson. Congrats Dr. Lee!
1/11/2017
Matteo Pezzulla (from Italy) and Dong Yan (from China) join the fleXLab as the two first Postdocs. Noelia Simone joins as superpowers Administrative Assistant.
1/11/2017
Pedro Reis joins the Institute of Mechanical Engineering at EPFL, as Full Professor.
1/11/2017
Birth of EPFL’s fleXLab (Flexible Structure Laboratory). Hello World!