Prof. Nan Hu

School of Civil Engineering & Transportation, South China University of Technology

Dr. Nan Hu is currently a full professor of civil engineering at South China University of Technology. A native of Beijing, China, Dr. Hu holds B.Eng. degree from Hunan University and M.Eng. degree from Central South University. His early experience focused on understanding the behavior of large-scale infrastructure, particularly on high-speed rail bridges. He spent a year at Tsinghua University as a research associate before moving to the U.S. for graduate school. He earned his M.Sc. in engineering mechanics and Ph.D. in civil engineering from Michigan State University, where he developed approaches to control the post-buckling response of cylindrical shells with a focus on energy harvesting. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher for two years at Dartmouth College, where he focused on harnessing mechanical instability for adaptive and multifunctional devices. Between Sep 2017 and Dec 2019, he held a tenure-track assistant professor position at the Ohio State University. His Versatile Structures Lab exploited the design and characterization of modular architected elements to achieve tailorable properties and configurations for developing next-generation adaptive materials, devices and systems in a wide range of length scales. He was promoted to a full professor position at SCUT since April 2020 and is continuing his effort to push the field of architected materials for a variety of applications, particularly toward large scale.

Speech Title: Harnessing architected materials toward resilient and adaptive structures

Abstract: Controlling geometric forms is a powerful way to create materials with tailored and often unprecedented properties. A paradigam has shifted to a “materials-by-design” approach that takes advantage of additive manufacturing to produce novel material systems across many length scales and with multiple functionalities. This talk will hightlight recent advances in the field of architected materials and demonstracted the advantaged of using such material design method for building resilient and adaptive structures.