News & Events

Bioinspired Adaptive Building Skins: From Nano- to Macroscales

Date: 5 August, 2021 (Thursday)

Time: 10am (HK Time)

Via Zoom

Medium of the talk: English
Online registration: https://bit.ly/2UvjXVb 

Speaker: Professor Shu Yang

Joseph Bordogna Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at University of Pennsylvania

Abstract:

Buildings account for nearly 40% of the total energy consumed in the US, including 72% of the electricity use and 39% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission each year through their direct influence on heating, cooling, and lighting. In nature, bio-organisms provide us fascinating examples with remarkable optical, mechanical, and surface effects, such as the self-cleaning lotus leaves, water collecting Namib desert beetle scales, dazzling iridescence on butterfly wings, dynamic underwater camouflage by Cephalopod skins, and open and close of pine cones driven by humidity. Importantly, bioorganisms respond to environmental change passively with minimal energy as part of their evolved strategies to optimize water, heat, and light management in cope with the local habitat.

Taking cues from nature, Professor Yang will discuss the attempts to create energy efficient and adaptive building skins, including highly transparent, superhydropohbic / superoleophobic coatings, structural colors, smart windows that can change transparency depending on the solar gain during the day. By coupling the materials-environment response at the nano- and microscale with CMOS technology, we attempt autonomous tracking/imaging/sensing with feedback control. By exploiting kirigami (cutting and folding) strategies, we demonstrate scalability of geometry and reconfigurability in water harvesting and self-cooling building envelopes at the macroscale.

About the speaker:

Professor Shu Yang is the Joseph Bordogna Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at University of Pennsylvania. Her group is interested in synthesis, fabrication, and assembly of polymers, liquid crystals, and colloids; investigation of the dynamic tuning of their sizes, shape and assembled structures, and use geometry to create highly flexible, super-conformable, and shape changing materials. Her lab explores the potential applications of the smart and bioinspired materials, including self-cleaning coatings, structural colors, adhesives, smart windows, sensors, actuators for robotics and biomedical devices. Professor Yang received her B.S. degree from Fudan University in 1992, and Ph. D. degree from Cornell University in 1999. She worked at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies as a Member of Technical Staff before joining Penn in 2004. She received George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from Penn Engineering (2015-2016). She is a Fellow of Materials Research Society (MRS) (2021), Division of Soft Matter (DSOFT) from American Physical Society (APS), Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering from American Chemical Society (ACS) (2018), Royal Chemical Society (2017), and National Academy of Inventors (2014). She was selected as one of the world’s top 100 young innovators under age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review (2004).

Please click HERE for online Registration.

Enquiries: enggfac@hku.hk    

All are welcome!