Pedro M. Reis
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, USA
Date
1 June 2016 -> Please note that this colloquium starts at 17:15!
Host
Christof Aegerter
Title
From Buckliphobia to Buckliphilia: The Wonders of Slender Structures
Abstract
Buckling of slender structures is typically regarded as a first route towards failure, and is to be avoided (Buckliphobia). Instead, we envision mechanical instabilities as opportunities for scalable, reversible, and robust functional mechanisms that are first to be predictively understood, and then harvested for applications (Buckliphilia). Examples are provided, ranging from the bacterial locomotion to smart surfaces for drag reduction.
Pedro Reis (left) with Christof Aegerter