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‘Chinese Lantern’ Structure Shifts Into More Than a Dozen Shapes for Various Applications

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the NC State belltower is bathed in red light during the annual Packapalooza event on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC; fireworks explode in the sky above while a group of onlookers watch

Dec 19, 2025

A Look Back at 2025

From new milestones to career-defining awards, faculty, staff and students at NC State continue to lead the pack into a new year of innovation and success.
A close-up shot of two small, rectangular blocks of a silver-colored metal foam composite held in a person's hands over a wooden surface. Both blocks are riddled with dark, uniformly sized spherical pores. The larger block on the right shows a high density of pores, giving it a sponge-like appearance, while the smaller, more reflective block on the left is angled to show the pore structure.

Oct 29, 2025

Some Like It Hot: Composite Metal Foam Proves Resilient Against High Stresses at High Temperatures

Coupled with the material’s high strength-to-weight ratio, the finding suggests that CMF could be used in applications ranging from automobile engines to aerospace components to nuclear power technologies.
A split photograph showcasing student achievement. The left side features a female gymnast wearing a red NC State jacket emerging from a tunnel amidst fireworks. The right side shows three women standing together in front of a large NASA logo.

Oct 22, 2025

Raina Gandhi Defies Gravity

Balancing rigorous aerospace engineering courses, Division I gymnastics and a NASA internship might seem impossible for most college students, but not for Raina Gandhi.
A well-dressed young man in a grey blazer and khakis giving a presentation on a stage. Behind him is a large "TEDxRaleigh" sign against a backdrop of red and black curtains, and an audience is visible in the foreground.

Oct 20, 2025

‘A Talk for Everyone’: MAE Student Gives TEDx Talk on Neurodivergence

Shaun Deardorff was one of 12 speakers at TEDx Raleigh.
The image is a scientific figure illustrating a remote adaptive multimodal crawler and gripper system. On the left, under the heading "Gripper," two panels show a soft, translucent robotic gripper holding different materials. The left panel shows the gripper securely holding a piece of Tofu (solid object). A small, white piece of tofu is also shown below it. The right panel shows the gripper holding a granular material resembling Sand. A pile of sand is also shown below it. Scale bars are visible at the bottom left of this section. On the right, under the heading "Remote adaptive multimodal crawler," two columns of panels illustrate the crawler's motion and shape transformation. A double-headed arrow labeled "Shape transform" separates the two columns. In both columns, the magnetic field (B) direction is indicated by a red arrow pointing upwards. Time stamps in seconds (s) are provided for each step. The left column shows the crawler in a wave-like or serpentine shape, demonstrating a crawling motion to the left. 0.00s: The crawler is in an elongated, S-curve shape. A white arrow indicates movement to the left. 0.30s: The shape has changed, pulling the body forward. 0.59s: The crawler is further elongated and has moved to the left. The right column shows the crawler in a C-shaped or inchworm-like shape, demonstrating a different crawling motion to the right. 0.00s: The crawler is in an arched, C-like shape. A white arrow indicates movement to the right. 0.20s: The shape has changed, pulling the body forward. 0.51s: The crawler has moved further to the right. Small scale bars are also visible at the bottom of the right section. The figure demonstrates the multifunctional capabilities of the soft robotic system, which can act as a gripper for different material types (solid and granular) and as a crawler that can change its shape and mode of locomotion in response to an external magnetic field.

Oct 16, 2025

‘Metabots’ Shapeshift From Flat Sheets Into Hundreds of Structures

The metabots resemble animated sheets of plastic, capable of moving around a surface or grasping objects.
"Chinese lantern" polymer graphic

Oct 10, 2025

‘Chinese Lantern’ Structure Shifts Into More Than a Dozen Shapes for Various Applications

Jie Yin Ι [email protected] Yaoye Hong Ι [email protected]Ι Matt Shipman Ι [email protected] Researchers have created a polymer “Chinese lantern” that can snap into more than a dozen curved, three-dimensional shapes by compressing or twisting…