Meet the Newest Faculty to Join the Department of Mechanical Engineering

Over the past year, we’ve had four new faculty members join the Department of Mechanical Engineering – Professors Negar Mehr, Lining Yao, Ken Kamrin, and Claudio Hail.

Negar Mehr received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering for UC Berkeley. Dr. Mehr’s research focuses on creating algorithms and mathematical models for autonomous systems to interact safely and intelligently with humans and other autonomous systems.

Lining Yao received her Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab. Dr. Yao’s research explores the positive impact of active and morphing materials on sustainable design across different scales and contexts. Her work focuses on discovering and studying morphing material mechanisms, as well as algorithms for computational design and fabrication pipelines.

Ken Kamrin received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from MIT. Dr. Kamrin’s research interests include theory and modeling of granular media, gas- and liquid-sediment mixture modeling, computational methods for soft media and multiphase problems, and analytical techniques and model reduction.

Claudio Hail received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich. Dr. Hail’s research interests include micro/mano-manufacturing, metamaterials, manophotonics, mptomechanics, and additive manufacturing.