 Professor HONG Wei | [Presentation Title] Chemically Homogeneous but Mechanically Heterogeneous Hydrogels Prof. Hong is currently Chair Professor and Dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Easter Institute of Technology (EIT). Wei got both B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, and Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University. Before joining EIT, Wei has worked as Professor in the Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering in Southern University of Technology, and as Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University. He also held a joint appointment from Hokkaido University as Associate Professor and later as Professor. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2019. Wei’s research covers areas including solid mechanics, fracture mechanics, microstructure evolution, Multiphysics modeling, and recently focuses on polymer physics, dielectric breakdown, adhesion, active materials and smart structures, and surface instabilities. |
 Professor LI Bing | [Presentation Title] Elastic Metasurfaces: Structural Designs and Extraordinary Guided-wave Control Prof. Li is a full professor in the School of Aeronautics at Northwestern Polytechnical University. His current research interests include dynamics of mechanical metamaterials, wave mechanics and structural health monitoring. He has published >100 scientific papers in top-tier peer-reviewed journals and renowned international conferences such as Nat. Commun., Compos. Sci. Tech., Compos. Part A/B, JSV, MSSP, IJMS etc. Prof. Li is an Associate Editor/(Youth) Editor Board Member for 7 scientific journals including IJEM, JMST, CJA, Frontiers in Physics etc. Prof. Li is elected as the Fellow of IAAM, Senior Member of CSTAM and CSCC, Member of ASC, and IPS. He has received a series of awards and honors, including Distinguished Expert of Chinese “Oversea Young Talents Program” (2020), 2nd Prize of the Science and Technology Award of the CSAA, CAI and CSVE (2024), The Youth Talent Program of Northwestern Polytechnical University (2018), etc. |
 Professor LI Kan | [Presentation Title] Mechanical Design of Passive Electronic Microfliers Prof. Li is a Professor in the School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He received his bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University, Tsien’s Excellence in Engineering Program. Prof. Kan Li obtained his PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Northwestern University in 2019. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Engineering. His research focuses on the mechanical design of flexible electronics, stretchable electronics, and electronic microfliers. He has published extensive papers in top journals, including Nature, PNAS, Advanced Materials, etc., as of 2025. He serves as the Associate Editor for the Mechanics of Materials journal, and is an editorial member of Mechanics and Materials of Complex Systems. |
 Professor LIU Yahua | [Presentation Title] Efficient Liquid Transport on Nature-inspired Surfaces Prof. Liu is a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Dalian University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the City University of Hong Kong, China, in 2015. His research interests center on the interfaces between engineering and materials, with an emphasis on the rational design and development of novel materials and devices for multifunctional applications using a nature-inspired approach. He has published more than 60 articles in prestigious journals such as Science, Nature Physics, Physical Review Letters, Science Advances and Nature Communications. |
 Professor YAN Jianfeng | [Presentation Title] Atomic-level Study on Ultrafast Laser Micro/Nano-Fabrication and its Applications Prof. Yan is an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His main research interests are laser micro-nano fabrication. He has published more than 90 papers in Nature Communications, Light Science & Applications, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Nano, etc., and has authorized more than 30 national/international invention patents. He has presided over the projects of National Science and Technology Major Project, National Key Research and Development Program, National Natural Foundation of China, and Beijing Science and Technology Program, etc. |
 Professor ZHAI Wei | [Presentation Title] Programming Wrinkles in Organo-hydrogels for Anisotropic Soft Sensors Prof. Zhai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Deputy Director of the Additive Manufacturing Centre (AM.NUS). She leads the Nature-inspired Advanced Materials Engineering group, specializing in the multiscale manufacturing of multifunctional materials for applications in electronics, healthcare, and energy systems. Prof. Zhai received her B.Eng. from the University of Science and Technology Beijing in 2011 and her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2015. Before joining NUS in 2019, she was a Research Scientist at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), A*STAR. |
