Mentor Areas
Research Areas: Architecture, Material-Driven Design, Natural Materials, Biomaterials, Additive Manufacturing, Sustainability.
Description:
DumoLab works on biodegradable and environmentally-conscious material systems. An interdisciplinary team designs and develops solutions such as: bricks produced by fungi and plant roots cleaning soils and air; surfaces from biopolymers like cellulose, silk, chitin, or keratin, which fully break down after use replacing plastic parts, earth-based structures substituting concrete shells, or educational outreach on climate change for young minds. For such emerging prototypes to turn into products, a regeneration-first paradigm must govern design intent, industrial manufacturing, building code, and the integration of biomaterial aesthetics in contemporary culture.
Undergraduate researchers in my lab will do very interdisciplinary work such as; (a) investigate traditional natural material building strategies, (b) explore how biomaterials are used in biomedical engineering and life sciences, (c) contribute to existing and invent advanced manufacturing methods that can handle biomaterial blends, (d) scale biomaterial systems to product and architectural applications, and (e) characterize and test new materials and products against use demands to validate their potential.
Preferred Qualifications
Ideal candidates have a passion for interdisciplinary design and some engineering background. Technical skills can include; basic electronics for machine tooling, analog and digital fabrication techniques such as molding and casting and additive manufacturing, bio-printing, general materials science with a foucs on sustainability, basic biomaterials chemistry and experience will hydrogels, computer-aided design, parametric design.
Project Website
Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here.
https://www.design.upenn.edu/dumolab/work(link is external)
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.