On Thursday, July 26, Anurag Bhattacharyya and Ziliang “Troy” Kang each presented their latest research on structural topology optimization of self-actuating mechanisms containing active materials.  The talks were presented at the 13th World Congress on Computational Mechanics in New York, NY.  Both talks were part of the mini-symposium “Computational Materials Design: Emerging Multiscale, Optimization and Reconstruction Techniques”, which was co-organized by Prof. Kai James along with his colleagues Dr. Masoud Safdari (UIUC), Dr. Ahmad Najafi (Drexel), and Dr. Majid Baniassadi, (U. Tehran).  Anurag presented his research on transient finite element analysis and design sensitivity analysis of shape memory polymers, while Troy presented his most recent results on topology optimization of shape memory alloys.

From Left to right: Masoud Safdari, Anurag Bhattacharyya, Kai James, Ahmad Najafi, Ziliang Kang