Crumpling and flattening a paper sheet changes the way the material responds to external stimuli. The creases that result from the crumpling, give the paper sheet a structure, causing it to no longer bend under its own weight. In other words, the structural manipulation changes the properties of the material. Overvelde’s research group explores how modifications in structure can be used in new, so-called meta-materials with characteristics that cannot be achieved through chemistry alone. He shows how his research group embraces origami practices to design re-configurable meta-materials that can change their internal structure completely, and how these transformations can be automated, herewith presenting robotic materials of the future that are truly enchanting.
Bas Overvelde, Scientific Group Leader at AMOLF, works at the crossroads of meta-material design and the field of soft robotics. His Studio Overvelde is a design-laboratory that focuses on material architecture; it develops functional and aesthetic solutions to design questions by creating and developing new materials.
Dr. ir. Bas Overvelde (born 1986), Director of the Soft Robotic Matter group at AMOLF, an academic institute for fundamental physics with high societal relevance in Amsterdam, is a Dutch scientist who works at the crossroads of metamaterial design and the field of soft robotics. Bas received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering cum laude at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Applied Mathematics at Harvard University, the United States.
Overvelde’s PhD research focused on harnessing compliance and instabilities in engineered structural materials and devices to achieve function. Pioneering his field of research, Overvelde works collaboratively with art institutions, inventors, designers and architects. Studio Overvelde is a design-laboratory that focuses on material architecture; it develops functional and aesthetic solutions to design questions by creating and developing new materials.
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