Students

Staple-like particles reveal new path to strong materials

alse6588 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:18:17 +0000

Staple-like particles reveal new path to strong materials alse6588 Tue, 04/14/2026 - 11:18

Alexander Servantez

A tightly packed ball of office staples can be surprisingly strong.Try to pull it apart and the tangled metal resists like a solid object.

But with the right movement or vibration, that same bundle can quickly fall back into loose pieces.

A team of engineers and materials scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at �鶹��Ƶ are exploring how this uncanny combination of strength and flexibility could inspire a new class of materials built on interlocking particles. By mimicking the way staples lock together and release, the researchers believe these emerging materials can one day form structures that are strong, adaptable and even recyclable.

“We’ve been playing around with the idea of building blocks and geometry for many years, but we started looking at interlocking, entangled particles only recently,” said Professor Francois Barthelat, the leader of the Laboratory for Advanced Materials & Bioinspiration. “We are excited about the combination of properties we can get out of these systems and we believe this technology has the potential to go in many directions.”

Unraveling the research

A bird nest made out of interwoven sticks and fibers.

The work, recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics, focuses on what the researchers call “entanglement”—when multiple particles become intertwined with one another, creating a link.

It’s not a new concept. In fact, nature is filled with examples of objects or materials that tangle and interlock with each other to create strong structures. Think about that giant bird nest on the tree in your neighborhood made out of interwoven sticks and fibers, or the interplay of hard minerals and soft proteins in your bones.

But how can scientists recreate that kind of natural entanglement in manufactured materials? The researchers in Barthelat’s lab say the answer revolves around one key concept: particle shape.

“Let’s take sand as an example. Sand is smooth and convex-shaped, meaning it cannot interlock from grain to grain,” PhD student Youhan Sohn said. “However, we found that if we change the shape of a grain of sand, we can drastically affect its behavior and mechanical properties, including the particle’s ability to link with other particles.”

Once the group came to this realization, they began running Monte Carlo simulations, a type of computational analysis, to predict exactly how the particles interlock with each other. Their goal was to find the optimal geometry that delivered the maximum entanglement.

A video demonstrating a pickup test used to analyze particle entanglement.

After finding the optimal shape, the team performed pickup tests to see how the entangled particles actually behaved.

The tests showed that a “two-legged” particle—similar in shape to a staple—had the greatest potential for entanglement. But the researchers also discovered several unexpected advantages that made the design even more intriguing.

The first was its rare blend of tensile strength and toughness, a combination the researchers say conventional materials rarely achieve simultaneously.

“Our entangled granular material using the staple-like particle demonstrates both high strength and toughness at the same time,” said PhD student Saeed Pezeshki.

Next, was its unique ability to rapidly assemble—and just as quickly come apart.

By applying different vibrational patterns to the material, the team was able to change its level of entanglement on demand. A light vibration, for example, could be used to interlock and strengthen the particles, while a larger vibration could cause them to completely unravel.

“It’s a strange material because it’s obviously not a liquid. However, it’s also not quite solid. This opens new and intriguing engineering possibilities,” Barthelat said. “Handling a bundle of these entangled particles feels very remote and exotic.”

Professor Francois Barthelat at the Triple E Fair showcasing his team's research to help middle school students explore engineering.

PhD student Youhan Sohn guiding middle school students through a series of pickup tests to help them visualize particle entanglement.

PhD student Saeed Pezeshki demonstrating the mechanical behavior of staple-like particles for middle school students.

Reassembling the impact

A close look at a free-standing arch made of crown-leg staples.

One of those possibilities comes in the realm of sustainability. The group believes that one day, large buildings and structures like bridges can be designed using entangled materials, allowing them to be disassembled when no longer needed or even fully recycled.

Or maybe entangled materials can make their way into the world’s next great robotic systems, sort of like the ones you’ve seen in some of your favorite sci-fi movies.

“I was talking with other students who believe this technology can be used in swarm robotics— where small robots can entangle, do a task and then disentangle when they are done,” said Pezeshki.

“Yes, kind of like that liquid metal T-1000 in Terminator 2 who can change shape to slide under a door and then transform back to a human’s size on the other side,” added Barthelat. “It’s expensive and scaling up is a challenge, but it’s something that’s on everybody’s mind.”

A close-up photo showing two spiky burrs in nature.

For now, the group is focused on building out the next phase of their research. They are currently testing a new particle shape with added protruding “legs”—similar to those spiky plant burrs that stick relentlessly to your shoes when you step on them—which they believe can generate even stronger entanglement properties.

But no matter what project they are working on, the team says the most important thing about their work is maintaining the passion and excitement.

“We’re not quite sure where this is going to go, but we’re going to continue the fun,” Barthelat said. “Most people don’t think about making strong materials in this way out of something like staples, because they think it’s counterintuitive. Until they try breaking a bundle of staples in half and see that it’s impossible.

“We love to take a difficult project like this and dig in.”

A tightly packed ball of office staples can be surprisingly strong. Try to pull it apart and the tangled metal resists like a solid object. But with the right movement or vibration, that same bundle can quickly fall back into loose pieces. A team of engineers and materials scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at �鶹��Ƶ are exploring how this uncanny combination of strength and flexibility could inspire a new class of materials built on interlocking particles.

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PhD student wins prestigious physics contest with endless avalanche experiment

alse6588 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:10:17 +0000

PhD student wins prestigious physics contest with endless avalanche experiment alse6588 Mon, 03/30/2026 - 14:10

PhD student Rylan Hodgson recently created a video that won the American Physical Society's (APS) 2026 Gallery of Soft Matter contest at the APS Global Physics Summit. The video demonstrates a unique view of the dynamics of granular flow with a rolling drum experiment that could one day be used to reveal key information about the mechanics and behavior of avalanches.

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ME undergraduate designs custom sauna for athlete recovery

alse6588 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:22:49 +0000

ME undergraduate designs custom sauna for athlete recovery alse6588 Tue, 03/03/2026 - 15:22

Student-athlete James Overberg has designed and developed a custom sauna that is crucial for helping endurance athletes recover from intense exercise. The new technology is now a permanent part of the Endurance Lab located in the Ford Indoor Practice Facility where it will assist Colorado student-athletes for years to come.

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Student feedback drives major ME curriculum changes for fall 2026

alse6588 — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:52:20 +0000

Student feedback drives major ME curriculum changes for fall 2026 alse6588 Wed, 02/04/2026 - 09:52

Alexander Servantez

Mechanical engineering students at �鶹��Ƶ can expect some big changes to their curriculum coming soon.

Janet Tsai, associate teaching professor and associate chair for undergraduate education, said the changes will help improve student learning experiences for all current and prospective students.

Here’s a breakdown of what students can expect starting fall 2026:

1. Splitting MCEN 1025 into two courses

The first change involves MCEN 1025, currently a four-credit computer-aided design (CAD) and fabrication course required of all mechanical engineering undergraduate students.

Students performing fabrication work in the Idea Forge.

The course will be split into two courses:

A three-credit CAD class (MCEN 1026) that will include classroom lectures and activities centered on learning the basics of CAD software.
A one-credit fabrication class (MCEN 2026) that will allow students to perform hands-on fabrication work in the Idea Forge machine shop.

Student feedback indicates the change will help resolve scheduling issues and improve flexibility—especially for transfer students—as they move through their college journey.

Tsai said the new class structure will also help create a clearer progression of hands-on experiences for students throughout the curriculum.

“The nice thing about the fabrication course is that it will be a 2000-level class,” Tsai said. “Currently, students take MCEN 1025 during their first year and have a year-long gap before their next hands-on course. But starting in the fall, there will be opportunities for hands-on, project-based learning in every year of the curriculum.”

2. Adjusting credit allocations across multiple courses

The second change tackles a student concern about class workloads not matching credit hours.

Many students expressed that certain classes were much more time consuming and difficult than the course’s allocated credit hours suggested. In order to address this issue, the department is restructuring credit allocations to better represent the amount of time and work students should expect in their courses.

Starting in the fall, students will no longer be required to take a three-credit standalone Math/Science Foundations class. The department will also be eliminating the lab component in MCEN 1030: Introduction to Engineering Computing and reducing the course’s credit hours from four to three.

Students studying in the Discovery Learning Center.

This frees up four total credit hours that the department will allocate to four other three-credit classes in need of adjustment. The classes that will receive an increase in credit hours are:

MCEN 3025: Component Design
MCEN 4026: Manufacturing Processes and Systems
MCEN 4043: System Dynamics
MCEN 4045: Senior Design I

Tsai believes the changes will help streamline degree requirements and stay compliant with registrar guidelines without adding or removing any credit hours. If students get caught between the old and new requirements, they will work very closely with them to ensure they can graduate on time.

“Right now, first- and second-year students are being advised of these changes so that they can schedule accordingly,” said Tsai. “Most juniors and seniors have achieved a majority of the old curriculum so they are still on track. But there are a couple of students in the middle that we are working on moving credits around with and they will definitely graduate just fine.”

Both of the changes were guided by a series of department-led student town hall meetings that began during the fall 2024 semester. The events served as a direct venue for students to voice any concerns they have regarding department leadership, programming or education.

“We believe it’s very important to hear directly from our students,” Tsai said. “So far it’s already led to a lot of great ideas and solutions that leadership and students are looking to build upon together.”

For example, the department is working to create a student advisory board, which will include students with a wide range of journeys and experiences. Tsai and her team are reviewing student-submitted applications to find a cohort that can help represent the student ecosystem and foster healthy discussion.

Above all, Tsai wants mechanical engineering students to know their changes and efforts are always implemented with their best interests in mind.

“These credit changes are something that we’ve been talking about for a long time and will greatly benefit our students,” said Tsai. “We want to show them that we are actively listening to their feedback and evolving to ensure they are getting credit for their work and receiving the best hands-on experience possible.”

Starting in fall 2026, the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering is rolling out two major curriculum changes—guided by student feedback—that aim to rebalance credit allocation and streamline degree requirements. Janet Tsai, associate teaching professor and associate chair for undergraduate education, said the changes will help improve student learning experiences for all current and prospective students.

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Engineers develop real-time membrane imaging for sustainable water filtration

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:32:55 +0000

Engineers develop real-time membrane imaging for sustainable water filtration Alexander Jame… Tue, 12/16/2025 - 15:32

Professor Victor Bright, Professor Emeritus Alan Greenberg and PhD student Mo Zohrabi have helped develop a laser-based imaging method called stimulated Raman scattering to improve the performance of desalination plants by allowing real-time detection of membrane fouling. The advance could help make desalination more efficient and reliable as global demand for clean water rises.

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Wind tunnel research could help predict how wildfires spread

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:15:00 +0000

Wind tunnel research could help predict how wildfires spread Alexander Jame… Fri, 12/05/2025 - 11:15

PhD student Laura Shannon, alongside Professors Greg Rieker and Peter Hamlington are setting fires inside wind tunnels to gain a better understanding of how fire spreads across different terrain. The team says their findings could help keep communities safer in a world where climate-driven wildfire is becoming more common—and more dangerous.

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A window underground: New sensors measure emissions from soil in real time

Alexander James Servantez — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 21:20:57 +0000

A window underground: New sensors measure emissions from soil in real time Alexander Jame… Thu, 11/20/2025 - 14:20

Soil is comprised of an intricate network of bacteria and other microbes that humans depend on, but this complex environmental system is constantly shifting, making it difficult for scientists to measure. Associate Professor Gregory Whiting and his team of researchers are developing reliable, inexpensive and easy-to-deploy sensors that monitor soil in real time to help farmers optimize their use of fertilizers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money in the process.

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Mechanical engineering students shine at the 2025 CSC Finals

Alexander James Servantez — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 19:46:57 +0000

Mechanical engineering students shine at the 2025 CSC Finals Alexander Jame… Thu, 11/06/2025 - 12:46

Mechanical engineering students Jack Mulvaney, Josh Shrewbridge, Hayden Dondlinger, Kai Groudan, Duncan Laird and Gregory Reilly shined at this year's Colorado Sustainable Challenge, receiving nearly $8,500 in awards during the two-week hackathon-style event designed for anyone passionate about solving problems and building a solution to impact sustainability.

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New open-source software allows for efficient 3D printing with multiple materials

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 21:16:15 +0000

New open-source software allows for efficient 3D printing with multiple materials Alexander Jame… Mon, 10/13/2025 - 15:16

Alexander Servantez

A new open-source tool is reshaping how engineers design multi-material objects.

Charles Wade, a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at �鶹��Ƶ, has created a design system software package that uses functions and code to map not just shapes, but where different materials belong in a 3D object.

OpenVCAD, a new open-source tool created to help engineers efficiently design multi-material objects.

The project, called OpenVCAD, was developed in the Matter Assembly Computation Lab led by Assistant Professor Robert MacCurdy of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. The team is publishing a new paper in the top 3D printing journal Additive Manufacturing on October 13 that will highlight the design tool and its potential to transform 3D printing by enabling engineers to design multi-material objects smarter and more efficiently.

“There’s certainly a history of multi-material design study and practice that existed well before OpenVCAD,” said MacCurdy, who is also affiliated with computer science and the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. “But we believe the overhead of writing specific code for specific projects every single time prevents engineers from doing as much design as they could.

“With OpenVCAD, we’re doing all of that work once—and doing it really well—so that people have built-in infrastructure to represent these spatially varying multimaterial designs.”

Pushing the limits of multi-material design

Designing objects with multiple materials has long pushed the limits of conventional computer-aided design (CAD) software.

According to Wade and MacCurdy, traditional design tools tend to represent objects as boundary surfaces only. This means they operate with an implicit assumption that everything inside of a boundary surface is all made up of the same material.

One of the major areas of interest in mechanics is something called gradient design, in which two materials are gradually blended together from one to another—like a shoe sole that shifts from firm at the bottom to soft at the top. But without a powerful design tool, translating rough steps into smooth transitions can be overwhelmingly difficult.

That’s why Wade developed OpenVCAD. The software package acts almost as a set of convenience tools that allow people not only to easily compose complex functions, but also to assign them as materials to objects in a 3D printer.

“This is the first multi-material, code-based design tool that is widely available,” Wade said. “It allows for good complexity when printing objects, it’s accessible and it’s intuitive to write and design. Unlike traditional CAD software, where you’re forced to sketch everything out for each change and you cannot represent graded materials, our tool allows users to change one small variable and watch the whole design update in an easy way.”

A broad impact for all to explore

The team’s new paper will explore OpenVCAD’s capability across a variety of 3D printers, including one available to MacCurdy’s lab group that allows for object printing with up to five materials at a time.

However, it’s the project’s potential impact for the entire engineering community that excites them.

A multi-material scan-to-print medical model for pre-surgical planning.

According to MacCurdy and his team, the OpenVCAD software can be used to help researchers design objects relevant to just about any industry and field. Surgeons in need of realistic planning models to practice on can take advantage of the tool’s gradient mixing properties. Soft robotics experts can use it to create flexible actuators that bend in one direction, but remain straight and stiff in another. Engineers who need to simulate complex multimaterial objects can design in OpenVCAD and easily export a simulation-ready file.

OpenVCAD can even apply specific mechanical properties to specific parts of lattice structures, which are often used for impact-absorbing capabilities to achieve more complicated designs. The possibilities are endless.

“We’re able to rely on OpenVCAD’s core capabilities to represent multi-material objects in a bunch of different domains,” said MacCurdy. “But there is a lot more coming in certain areas that we are excited about and we’re really hoping this approach to multi-material design takes off.”

OpenVCAD is a completely open-source tool, meaning it is widely available for engineers around the world to use. It even comes equipped with a Python implementation so that any user can easily import the team’s repository and get to work with just a single line of code.

“We want this to be widely available to people,” Wade said. “We have a growing base of external researchers from other institutions who are using this tool and we hope to enable that community to do their best work.”

Assistant Professor Robert MacCurdy and fourth-year PhD student Charles Wade have created an open-source design system software package that uses functions and code to map not just shapes, but where different materials belong in a 3D object. The project, called OpenVCAD, has the potential to transform 3D printing by enabling engineers to design multi-material objects smarter and more efficiently.

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A multi-material lattice structure with a gradient design used for its impact-absorbing capabilities.

Campos Student Center celebrates community and future success

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 21:47:12 +0000

Campos Student Center celebrates community and future success Alexander Jame… Fri, 09/05/2025 - 15:47

The College of Engineering and Applied Science honored the ribbon cutting ceremony of the newly named Campos Student Center in recognition of a $5 million investment for student success from Marco Campos and the Campos Foundation. Fourth-year mechanical engineering student Julia Wall weighs in on the importance of the center and how important the investment will be for its future.

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