UCLA Flexible Research Group

06/18/2025

Our research just got published on Science Robotics!

A novel compliant mechanism bed design is used to prevent pressure ulcers!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.ads6314

06/18/2025

New video from FACTs of Mechanical Design!

Compliant mechanisms can be used to prevent pressure ulcers!

https://youtu.be/KfIB_e_6rzY

07/14/2023

Check out the latest video on the FACTs of Mechanical Design YouTube Channel!

This one is about compliant mechanisms that LEARN!

https://youtu.be/_CwUuyN6NTE

07/23/2020

We are on YouTube now!
Check out Professor Hopkins' very first YouTube video on "The Facts of Mechanical Design" YouTube channel!

Compliant mechanisms are flexible machines that bend and deform to achieve a desired task. Examples include origami, soft robots, precision flexure bearings,...

09/06/2019

Lab gathering/reunion at ASME IDETC 2019 Conference. Lab alumnus, Dr. Frederick Sun is now collaborating with Flexible Research Group from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

05/03/2019

Future is Flexible!

The Future is Flexible (and Squishy)Apr 25, 2019 NewsroomArticle The Future is Flexible (and Squishy)Apr 25, 2019By Sarah C.P. WilliamsResearchers from UCLA Samueli School of Engineering are developing soft, bendable, responsive materials to use in the next generation of robots and electronic device...

11/05/2018

Check out our latest publication in Nature Communications on Compliant rolling-contact architected materials for shape reconfigurability:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07073-5

10/02/2018

Today is a big day for Flexible Research Group!
The Nobel Prize in Physics is given to three scientists who invented optical tweezers and pulsed lasers. These are tools that work with light only and believe it or not, we have built a system in our lab that combines these two tools in a single setup! We are so proud!

BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 “for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics” with one half to Arthur Ashkin “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems” and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.”

The inventions being honoured this year have revolutionised laser physics. Extremely small objects and incredibly fast processes now appear in a new light. Not only physics, but also chemistry, biology and medicine have gained precision instruments for use in basic research and practical applications.

Arthur Ashkin invented optical tweezers that grab particles, atoms and molecules with their laser beam fingers. Viruses, bacteria and other living cells can be held too, and examined and manipulated without being damaged. Ashkin’s optical tweezers have created entirely new opportunities for observing and controlling the machinery of life.

Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland paved the way towards the shortest and most intense laser pulses created by mankind. The technique they developed has opened up new areas of research and led to broad industrial and medical applications; for example, millions of eye operations are performed every year with the sharpest of laser beams.

Learn more
Press release: https://bit.ly/2NdS4rx
Popular information: https://bit.ly/2P2jN08
Advanced information: https://bit.ly/2NfDdN8

08/15/2017

http://www.mae.ucla.edu/hatamizadeh-song-hopkins-receive-theoretical-contributions-in-compliant-mechanisms-award-at-asmes-idetc-conference/

Hatamizadeh, Song, Hopkins receive Theoretical Contributions in Compliant Mechanisms Award at ASME’s IDETC Conference Aug 14, 2017 MAE Professor Jonathan Hopkins, and UCLA Flexible Research Group Ph.D. candidates Ali Hatamizadeh and Yuanping (Adam) Song were award the Theoretical Contributions in Co...

07/18/2017

Professor Hopkins winning the Northrop Grumman Best Teaching Awards!

We invite you to submit nominations for the 2018 UCLA Engineering Awards! We honor alumni, faculty, students and friends of the school who have achieved excellence in their chosen fields, contributed to the engineering profession and brought prestige to the school and campus. Submit someone who exemplifies our tradition of excellence! → http://engineering.ucla.edu/2018-awards-dinner-nominations/

06/24/2017

Curious to know how Holographic Optical Tweezing (HOT) technology can be used for additive fabrication of microstructures ?

https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-41-15-3571

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

04/14/2017

We are proud of you, Samira :)

http://engineering.ucla.edu/nsf-students/

Four students at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have received the National Science Foundation’s prestigious