Engineering Origami Structures and Metamaterials
Wednesday, June 3, 2026 | 8:30-9:30 am
Glaucio H. Paulino, Ph.D., NAE, F.EMI, M.ASCE
Margareta E. Augustine Professor of Engineering
Princeton University
Abstract: Metamaterials with multimodal deformation mechanisms resemble machines, especially when endowed with autonomous functionality. A representative architected assembly, with tunable chirality, converts linear motion into rotation. These chiral systems with a machine-like dual modality have potential use in areas such as wave manipulation, optical activity related to circular polarization and chiral active fluids. However, in previous literature, the dual motions are essentially coupled and cannot be independently controlled. Moreover, they are restricted to small deformations, which limits their applications. We use a ground-structure based topology optimization formulation to establish modular chiral structures and metamaterials, consisting of auxetic planar tessellations and origami-inspired columnar arrays, with decoupled actuation. Under single-degree-of-freedom actuation, the assembly twists between 0° and 90°, contracts in-plane up to 25% and shrinks out-of-plane more than 50%. Using experiments and simulations, we show that the deformation of the assembly involves in-plane twist and contraction dominated by the rotating-square tessellations and out-of-plane shrinkage dominated by the tubular Kresling origami arrays. Moreover, we demonstrate two distinct actuation conditions: twist with free translation and linear displacement with free rotation. Our metamaterial is built on a highly modular assembly, which enables reprogrammable instability, local chirality control, tunable loading capacity and scalability. Our concept provides routes towards multimodal, multistable and reprogrammable machines, with applications in robotic transformers, thermoregulation, mechanical memories in hysteresis loops, non-commutative state transition and plug-and-play functional assemblies for energy absorption and information encryption.
Biosketch: Professor Paulino is the Margareta E. Augustine Professor of Engineering at Princeton University. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA). His seminal contributions include the development of methodologies to characterize the deformation and fracture behavior of existing and emerging materials; topology optimization for large-scale multiscale/multiphysics problems; variational methods; deployable and adaptable structures; and origami engineering (topic of his lecture at the EMI CONFERENCE).
He is a fellow of all major professional societies, including EMI, ASME (American Soc. of Mechanical Engineers), AAM (American Academy of Mechanics), SES (Society of Engineering Science), ISSMO (International Society for Structural & Multidisciplinary Optimization), USACM (US Association for Computational Mechanics), IACM (International Association for Computational Mechanics).
He received the Mindlin Medal of ASCE, the Drucker Medal and the Melville Medal of ASME, the Eringen Medal from SES, the Reddy Medal from Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, and the Belytschko Medal twice, one from ASME and one from USACM. He also received the 2015 Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences, “which recognizes recently published PNAS papers of outstanding scientific excellence and originality.”
Learn more about his research and professional activities.