Teaching

Mechanics describes how the physical systems around us deform, move, and carry load. It explains, for example, why a helmet liner cushions an impact, why a rubber band stiffens near its limit, and why a plastic film tears easily in one direction. In my research, I seek the mechanisms that govern how polymeric materials and structures deform and use those mechanisms to design resilient and sustainable engineered systems. In my teaching, I hope to share with every student the curiosity behind this work: the habit of looking at a physical system and asking how it works and which mechanism governs it. I also want students to leave my courses with a systematic way of approaching and solving a wide range of problems, including those that matter for a resilient and sustainable future.

Teaching Experience

• Guest Lecturer, Mechanics of Elastomeric Materials (graduate), Columbia UniversitySpring 2026
  • Lecture on continuum mechanics and rubber elasticity
  • Tutorial workshop on the numerical integration of nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive relations
  • Final review lecture covering the course, from statistical-mechanics-based models of rubber elasticity to viscoelasticity
• Teaching Assistant, Computational Solid Mechanics (graduate), Johns Hopkins UniversityFall 2023
  • Graded five homework sets and three programming projects in which students wrote their own finite-element programs in MATLAB: a one-dimensional linear elastostatics program; a two-dimensional program with 4-, 8-, and 9-node isoparametric elements; and a final project on beam bending with small-strain J2 plasticity or finite-strain neo-Hookean elasticity
  • Held office hours
• Teaching Assistant, Materials Selection (undergraduate), Johns Hopkins UniversityFall 2021
  • Designed, solved, and graded homework sets and two midterm exams
  • Held office hours
  • Gave a lecture on materials, environment, and sustainability

Mentoring

• Xiaolei Ye, M.S. student, Columbia University2026–present
  Bio-inspired graded composites by multimaterial 3D printing
• Joel Mandal, undergraduate researcher, now M.S. student, Columbia University2026–present
  Architected composites inspired by thermoplastic vulcanizates
• Pei Liu, summer research intern, Johns Hopkins University2023
  Viscoelastic snap-through architected materials; now a Ph.D. student at Rice University
• Yiji Huang, summer research intern, Johns Hopkins University2023
  Synthesis of liquid crystal elastomers; now a Ph.D. student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University